Iowa State University Museums celebrated their 50th anniversary last Thursday with a Museum Meetup themed 50 Years of Collecting and Preserving the Past.
It was held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Brunnier Art Museum, located on the second floor of the Scheman Building.
Iowa State University Museums’ legacy goes back to 1975, encompassing the Brunnier Art Museum, Farm House Museum, Christian Petersen Art Museum, Anderson Sculpture Garden and the Art on Campus Collection and Program, all free and on Iowa State’s campus.
Carly McCoy, museum education program assistant, said the various museums on campus work together to create a cohesive story and collection through their exhibitions.
“We’re all one team,” McCoy said. “We meet weekly, we’re always discussing new ideas together…there’s just lots of collaboration.”
That’s five decades of enriching student learning and engaging the community in art, history and heritage.
McCoy explains what Museum Meetups are all about.
“Museum Meetup is really a chance for people to come out and experience museums if they haven’t had an opportunity to,” McCoy said. “We try to do it after hours so that people who have classes or work can come, and we try to have activities related to our exhibitions.”
Each Museum Meetup offers a chance to explore Iowa State’s museum collections, and guests can immerse themselves in their experience by participating in a themed craft and enjoying snacks and refreshments.
“Right now, we have 50 Years of Collecting and Preserving the Past as our exhibition, so to go along with that, we have trinket boxes for people to decorate,” McCoy said. “We are also partnering with the herbarium to do a pressed plant activity.”
This museum meetup craft was themed around honoring the 50th anniversary of the University Museums. Those who attended could take home their own trinket box, a way to collect, store and preserve their own special collections. Supplies were provided to decorate the boxes, like paint markers, stickers, colored pencils and more.
For this Museum Meetup, University Museums collaborated with the Iowa State Ada Hayden Herbarium for an additional craft activity and offered an opportunity to engage students with the herbarium. A herbarium is a scientific collection of dried plant specimens and associated data, almost like a plant library.
The Ada Hayden Herbarium houses over 710,000 specimens from at least 120 countries and every continent, including 99% of Iowa’s native species of ferns, conifers and flowering plants. The herbarium preserves historical records of flora for scientific research and education.
A table was set up in the museum displaying various specimens of plants and flowers pressed onto archival paper and a field journal for guests. Guests had the chance to press plants and glue them to paper to create their own archives.
After reaching the 50-year milestone, McCoy shares what she thinks the goal and vision of the future looks like for University Museums.
“I think strengthening our permanent collection is really important to our curators and our directors, and having exhibitions that engage with the broader Ames community is really important,” McCoy said.
The Ada Hayden Herbarium is located at Bessey Hall in rooms 344-360. If you are interested in attending a Museum Meetup or learning more about University Museums, click here.