A New Beginning
The Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (IUMAA) is a new museum, research center, and laboratory formed from the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology (GBL) and the Mathers Museum of World Cultures (MMWC). The IUMAA is located on the Indiana University Bloomington Campus and fully supports the university mission to create, disseminate, preserve, and apply knowledge in all its forms. Both previous institutions successfully supported the IU mission by making important contributions to education and research. They provided opportunities for students, researchers, cultural groups, and community organizations to engage with cultures both past and present, while inspiring people to consider our collective futures. We strive to create an institutional ethos that celebrates cultural diversity, shares multiple perspectives, and values social justice and environmental stewardship. Our mission embodies this philosophy.
Bringing the two institutions and their robust collections together will have benefits for Indiana University, our partners, researchers, and visitors. Building a modern museum that presents opportunities to celebrate material culture will create a place where people can access a huge variety of objects that have meaning to diverse groups of people. Curating such a range of objects will create new ways of organizing ethnological research and promote new connections between people and objects. The added breadth of objects we collect, curate, and research will also catalyze novel approaches to object-based teaching and pedagogy, while spawning new ways of understanding how knowledge is created. Furthermore, the new museum will expand international cultural understanding for Indiana residents, IU students, and other visitors by acting as a gateway for knowledge exchange through the study of material culture.
The IUMAA Strategic Plan focuses on eight priorities for the new institution:
- Priority 1. Openness: Create a welcoming space with opportunities for audiences to engage with the work of the museum.
- Priority 2. Communications: Increase the visibility of museum and its collections and research.
- Priority 3. Education: Support both IUMAA and IU missions by presenting scholarly research via tours, teaching, student training, programs, and exhibitions.
- Priority 4. Research: Conduct and facilitate research with archaeological and ethnographic collections, as well as in museum studies and educational practices, and share findings.
- Priority 5. Preservation: Observe best practices in every aspect of collections curation.
- Priority 6. Collaboration: Engage with other institutions and entities through partnerships focused on shared goals.
- Priority 7. Support: Responsibly plan for financial security.
- Priority 8. Professionalism: Conduct all museum activities ethically, creatively, and thoughtfully, using highest standards.
For more information on each priority and its objectives and strategies
Click here for a downloadable copy of the complete plan