Mathers celebrates 50th anniversary

A new exhibition and a series of free programs highlighting IU’s Mathers Museum of World Cultures will mark the institution’s 50th anniversary this month.

The month will culminate in the opening of the “Treasures of the Mathers Museum” exhibition at 2 p.m. April 28.

“While a celebration of the museum’s anniversary, the exhibition traces the history of how the museum’s collections have grown and how this growth reflects wider changes in the museum, as well as the passions and interests of those students, scholars and collectors with whom we have partnered over five decades,” museum director Jason Baird Jackson said in a press release.

The exhibition features a broad selection of museum pieces, organizing artifacts by decades and collectors. Artifacts of African, Native American and Latin American cultures, historical materials from Indiana and musical instruments from around the world will be represented in the exhibit.

Two additional exhibits will open April 28. “Time As We Keep It” is curated by IU senior Paige Kadish, while “Footsteps of a Stranger: Shoes from Cultures Around the World” is curated by IU sophomore Haley Hall.

Both are students in the College of Arts and Sciences, with Kadish majoring in political science and Hall in anthropology. Both are also enrolled in Anthropology A408/Museum Practicum, according to a press release.

The museum is also offering a number of free programs during the month of April, kicking off the institution’s anniversary celebrations.

From 4:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday, the Bizarre Foods Fair will feature presentations highlighting student research and be complemented by a variety of foods for sampling. The event is organized by students from IU Anthropology’s A200/Bizarre Foods course. Tickets are free but required and can be picked up at Mathers or reserved by emailing museumed@indiana.edu or calling 812-855-0197.

From 2-3 p.m. April 27, Earlham College art historian Julia May will present museum paintings on eucalyptus bark panels.

These paintings are from Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. May will discuss the history of the form, the methods used to create the paintings and interpretations based upon the Aboriginal system of belief called the Dreaming, according to a press release.


— Kathryn Moody