『Renovated MSU Museum part of a “vital social infrastructure on campus”』のカバーアート

Renovated MSU Museum part of a “vital social infrastructure on campus”

Renovated MSU Museum part of a “vital social infrastructure on campus”

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 Devon Akmon is the director of the renovated and revitalized MSU Museum.Conversation Highlights:(0:20) – What’s been happening at the renovation and revitalization of the venerable MSU Museum?(1:03) – Was the remodeling something you knew was necessary when you became director in 2021?(1:49) – You found a way to stay open during the renovation.(2:52) – What are you excited about in the renovated MSU Museum?(4:06) – What are some current or future exhibits you’d like to highlight?(5:38) – What are the MSU Museum’s priorities in the Uncommon Will Far Better World campaign?(6:34) – What do you want us to know about the revitalized MSU Museum?(7:14) – What are challenges and opportunities ahead for the MSU Museum and the entire arts industry?Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows. Conversation Transcript:Russ White (00:00):Well, it's great to welcome Devon Akmon back to MSU Today. Devon is the director of the Michigan State University Museum. Devon, welcome back. Thanks for having me on the show. So Devon, the museum has been closed for a while. I'm not sure if you're saying refurbished, modernized. What are you saying has happened to the museum?Devon Akmon (00:21):Certainly a lot has been happening. I would like to call it a renovation.Speaker 1 (00:24):Renovation, I like it.Speaker 2 (00:26):The museum has never been in a building that was purposely built for museums. So where we are today on the Circle was previously the library. So we've been in, the museum has been in that building for about 75 years. And this is the first infrastructural upgrade to the building, meaning heating, cooling, windows, all the things that make a museum flourish and make us excellent at stewardship of the collection.Speaker 1 (00:52):And Devon, did you kind of know when you took over in 2021, we need to renovate? Or was that part of even why you took the job knowing we would renovate? Speaker 2 (01:04):Certainly it was a priority from day one. So we are really proud that the Michigan State University Museum is accredited and less than 5% of museums are. There are 35,000 museums in the nation. Less than 5% are accredited. However, because of the accreditation standards, we were very concerned would we be able to continue with that designation given we didn't have heating and cooling. So from day one at that time, it was Provost Woodruff and Vice Provost Stoddard and I, we discussed this and made it a priority. And with the collective leadership, were able to get that vital support from our board of trustees who agreed this is an investment we need to make here at MSU.Speaker 1 (01:41):But you didn't really close completely, right? You stayed alive in the new MSU Credit Union building. You were there. Talk about how you stayed open and alive.Speaker 2 (01:49):So we've been really working to revitalize the museum. I don't think that most people recognize that the MSU Museum was founded in 1857 with the first incoming class of students here. And I always tell people MSU had two great visions. One, this notion of a land grant, and two, a museum that would help with teaching, learning, public engagement, research. So as we've been rethinking what a museum could be in the 21st century post pandemic, we were making great inroads and we knew that by shutting down for 18 months, we would be at a disadvantage. We wouldn't be able to serve our students and faculty in the community. So with the gracious support of our friends at MSU FCU, they provided us with a space where we had exhibitions and programming and a host of activity happening for about 18 months. We just closed down that gallery last week and now we're eagerly anticipating the reopening of the museum.Speaker 1 (02:40):So Devon, it's renovated. Tell us about what the renovation looks like. What are you excited about? What are some of the changes? Obviously some of the infrastructure, but what are you excited about in the renovated museum?Speaker 2 (02:52):Well, certainly the upgrades, new windows, all these things that will make it a comfortable and stable environment and enable us to do more forward-looking collection stewardship. However, we were able to renovate and upgrade some of the spaces in the museum as well. So the Forest Acres Trust has been phenomenal and they granted us $2 million to reenvision our lower level. So now we have a new immersive lab for faculty and students to engage more closely with our one million objects and specimens in our collection. We have more experiential learning galleries now because of this where we can collaborate with our students and faculty to build exhibitions. It doesn't have to just be the professional staff, but we also have other spaces in the museum for teaching, learning. We've included two new community, what we're calling lounges for students so that they can just drop in and hang out.(
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