Iowa City Community Leader Believes in the Healing Power of Art

PHOTO: SETH DIEHL Joyce Summerwill‘s home is full of reminders of her impact on the Iowa City arts scene.

When Joyce Summerwill and her late husband, Dick, moved to Iowa City in 1963, the plan was to stay three years at the most. Over time, Summerwill fell in love with the college town—a hub for health care, politics, and the arts. According to Summerwill, “Iowa City is densely small, but it’s filled with large thinkers.”

Now at 89, Summerwill has been a vibrant presence in the community for more than 60 years, connecting people through art. In 1975, she walked through the halls of the then-named University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics to explore the idea of using art to enhance the hospital’s ambience with CEO John W. Colloton (57MA, 13LHD). At the time, green-tiled walls and linoleum floors lined the hospital. “I had never seen a sadder place in my life,” says Summerwill.

Summerwill spent the next five months talking to doctors, nurses, and patients to create a plan to improve patients’ healing experience by adding original works from thousands of artists. Project Art launched in 1978, and the collection now includes more than 6,500 works of art. While art has since become commonplace in teaching hospitals, Summerwill says Iowa was one of the first to incorporate it to beautify the space.

Since retiring as director of patient and guest relations at UI Hospitals & Clinics in 1993, Summerwill has continued investing in Iowa City’s art scene, including at the Englert Theatre, FilmScene, and UI Stanley Museum of Art. For the past 10 years, she has invited UI School of Music students to join her for Hancher performances by donating tickets.

Summerwill has stayed in touch with a lot of the people she’s met through the arts over the years. Her home in downtown Iowa City is filled with many art pieces, often given to her as gifts for her impact. Through her legacy and the people she has met, it is clear to Summerwill that “art is healing.”