The IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (IUMAA) will have a grand opening from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19.
The museum will host local vendors Pili’s Party Taco and Rasta Pops, who will be giving away vouchers for a free Rasta Pop or $5 off on any order at Pili’s Party Taco to the first 80 visitors. The IUMAA will also provide free baked goods from Crumble Coffee & Bakery. Johnny P's Quartet will play jazz as part of the opening festivities. The museum will give tours every 30 to 40 minutes.
Sarah Hatcher, learning and community engagement manager, works with faculty and community members to help them find ways to connect with the museum.
“What I'm hoping for, once we get past the grand opening, is that we continue to be seen as a valued community and campus partner, and that we become a place of connections,” Hatcher said.
Several major exhibitions will be featured at the opening, including “Locally Global,” “Divine Adornment,” “Whispers from the Divide” and “Through Our Eyes: A Reclamation.”
“Locally Based, Globally Relevant” was developed in partnership with anthropology professor Eduardo Brondizio. Jean-Luc Howell, the director of curatorial affairs, said the exhibit focuses on six case studies of how the practices of Indigenous peoples and local communities have impacted the land.
An interactive wall displays six categories ranging from land stewardship to food sovereignty. Visitors can see the local case studies and then pull out a panel to read more about the global impact. One panel examines wildfire prevention in Australia, and how Indigenous land management has been applied to the continent.
“Divine Adornment: Community Stories of Belonging” exhibits garments exploring the concept of slow fashion and the symbolism behind clothing from the Islamic perspective. Fashion design professor Heather Akou interviewed many community members to tell their stories about the garments they wear similar to the exhibit’s textiles, clothing and jewelry.
Digital art professor Arthur Liou created a nine- minute collaborative art piece, “Whispers from the Divide,” with a soundtrack from composer and Jacobs School of Music lecturer Steven Thomas. Liou recorded videos of his journey to the U.S.-Mexico border to show the environment surrounding the border wall. Footage from the U.S. side is projected on one side of a wall built into the gallery and footage from the Mexico side is projected on the other.
“When people are viewing this piece, you are only getting one side of the wall at a time,” Howell said. “When you are on one side, you are getting one idea of what the wall is, and so the wall can mean many things to many different people.”
For “Through Our Eyes: A Reclamation,” the museum invited Indigenous curators Debra Yepa-Pappan, Molina Two Bulls and Yatika Starr Fields to create their artworks in response to the Wanamaker Collection of American Indian Photographs, the Edward S. Curtis and Joseph K. Dixon photography collections and the Archives of Traditional Music at Jacobs. The IUMAA also partnered with the University Information Technology Services Advanced Visualization Lab to create a digital gallery of the works contributed by the guest curators.
“We really gave the content-driving and the design to the guest curators, letting the community voices speak out,” Howell said. “This is a chance for them to contextualize these archives through their own eyes.”
Museum staff frequently meets with its Student Advisory Council to discuss interesting issues relevant to students on campus. Junior Kaia Wells, president of the IUMAA Student Advisory Council, said in an email that the aim is to provide advice to the IUMAA staff on how to engage with students while providing the council with experience in outreach, event and exhibit planning.
The IUMAA aims to redefine what a museum is for the community by providing a welcoming space for students and the community, Howell said.
