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The University of Iowa's new state-of-the-art performance space also houses one of the most remarkable pieces of public art anywhere in Iowa. Long before Hancher Auditorium opened, members of the Art in State Buildings Program met to discuss the types of pieces that made sense for such a grand building.

It has been more than 2,800 days since the crest of the Iowa City Flood of 2008, when the waters destroyed Hancher Auditorium on the University of Iowa's campus. On Friday, Sept. 9, the space will re-open and celebrate with the official dedication and first of two open houses.

Bill Dawkins waited eight years for this day. On June 1, he walked into the new Hancher Auditorium on the University of Iowa campus and studied the performing arts venue with the eye of a man now responsible for helping keep the 192,000-square-foot facility spotless. He noticed the stainless steel elevators, aluminum railings, bare floors, white walls, and glass—lots of glass. “I was in awe,” Dawkins says. “It was so big and so stainless and so white. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, how will we keep this place clean?’"

The University of Iowa's new Hancher Auditorium was officially dedicated Friday, Sept. 9. The celebration program, hosted by Lynette Marshall, president and chief executive officer of the UI Foundation, included performances by Iowa City natives Rinde Eckert and Conor Hanick, and the Community Mass Choir under the direction of Barbara Haack, and remarks from the honorable Terry Branstad, governor of the state of Iowa; UI President Bruce Harreld; Beth Freeman, regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Hancher Auditorium benefactors Dick and Mary Jo Stanley; UI alumnus and former Hancher performer Julius Carter; and Chuck Swanson, executive director of Hancher.