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The University Museum project is intended to house
Wesleyan University's collections of art and material culture in ways that
will support a wide range of innovative learning from objects in a
facility that meets accepted museum standards for climate control,
security, and display. The proposed University Museum will address several
objectives described in the Academic Plan and the Strategy for Wesleyan,
including visual literacy and intercultural competence. Driven by the
academic needs of the University, the design for the University Museum will
provide a unique combination of state-of-the-art study classrooms, open
storage of selected objects, storage and exhibition spaces, and support
services.
Programs and departments involved in the University
Museum project include Art and Art History, East Asian Studies, Classical
Studies, Archaeology, Anthropology, American Studies, History, Music,
Theater, and English. Among the many other departments that teach from
Wesleyan's collections of art and material culture are Romance Languages
and Literatures, German Studies, Asian Languages and Literatures, and
Russian Languages and Literatures.
The University Museum will bring together four key collections, all now
inadequately housed at different locations on campus: works on paper and
other objects at the Davison Art Center, Asian objects at the Mansfield
Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, archaeological and ethnographic
materials housed in the Exley Science Center, and world musical
instruments in the Music Department. Wesleyan's renowned collection of
nearly 18,000 European and American prints is one of the two or three most
important at any American university; the DAC also holds about 6,000
photographs, 600 Japanese prints, and smaller numbers of paintings,
drawings, African objects, and American pewter. A new facility for all
four of these collections will offer Wesleyan students unparalleled
opportunities for learning from original objects.
Click here to see detailed project
information and development.
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