Art Unveiling at Stephens Auditorium

For decades, Stars Over VEISHEA (SOV) stage productions were a beloved hallmark of Iowa State University’s annual student-run celebration. Among the many productions to grace the stage, the 1970 performance of Oliver! now holds a special place in university history, thanks to a long-lost painting by renowned American artist Milton Wolsky.

The restored Oliver! painting will be officially unveiled on Tuesday, May 6 at 4 p.m. in the main floor lobby of Stephens Auditorium. Remarks will be delivered at 4:15 p.m. by Kay Kretschmar Runge, who served on the Stars Over VEISHEA Organizing Committee and generously supported the painting’s restoration and framing through gifts to Stephens Auditorium. The public is invited to attend. Posters of the painting will be available for sale.

In 1970, Wolsky, then based in Omaha, Nebraska, created a painting that captured a scene from the Oliver! production at Stephens Auditorium, just a year after the theater opened in 1969. Wolsky, born in Omaha in 1916, had spent much of his career as a prominent illustrator during the “Golden Age” of American magazine art in the 1940s and ’50s.

One of Bozell’s clients, InterNorth (formerly Northern Natural Gas Co.), commissioned Wolsky to paint a series of 37 high-profile buildings across Nebraska and Iowa. These pieces, often gifted to the featured institutions, captured architectural landmarks with Wolsky’s distinctive eye for line and color. The Stephens Auditorium interior joined this collection.

That painting, however, seemed to vanish over time — until a surprising rediscovery in late 2020.

Stephens Auditorium staff stumbled upon the artwork in backstage storage in November 2020. Some long-time employees recalled the painting once hung in a former staff member’s office, where it remained until her departure in the late 1990s. Afterward, it slipped quietly into obscurity.

When it resurfaced, the 22-by-22-inch painting had endured decades without protection, yet was in relatively good shape. A conservation treatment began the following month.

Now, more than 50 years after its creation, the painting stands not only as a tribute to Milton Wolsky’s talent but also as a vibrant snapshot of Iowa State’s cultural history — a once-forgotten gem that’s finally back in the spotlight.

To learn more about the conservation of the painting including timelapse videos, please use this link to the library’s website: https://www.lib.iastate.edu/news/found-milton-wolsky-painting-depicts-1970-stars-over-veishea-oliver-production