Themester Awards IUMAA Grant for First Thursdays Programs, Speaker Series
July 7, 2022
Visitors to IU Bloomington's First Thursdays events in September and October will have the opportunity to express their individual identities and contribute to an expression of the IU Bloomington community through quilting activities hosted by the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The programs will be funded by a grant awarded to the museum by Themester 2022: Identity and Identification, an initiative of the IU College of Arts and Sciences.
Quilting is a traditional art with deep connections to both American and Hoosier culture and identity and visitors will be able to create quilt squares that represent themselves. In line with the tradition of using found objects such as t-shirts and feed sacks to create quilts with meaningful patterns, visitors will have the opportunity to use found objects to create quilt squares at the September First Thursdays event (September 1) hosted by IU's Arts and Humanities Council. The quilt squares will be scanned and printed on fabric, and the finished quilt top will be displayed at the October First Thursdays festival (October 6) and then used for museum education and outreach purposes.
In addition to funding First Thursdays activities, the Themester grant will enable IUMAA to host a series of speakers in the fall that will discuss cultural and individual identity from a number of different perspectives. Among the perspectives that will be covered in this speaker series are pop culture’s effect on identity and how archeologists understand the cultural identity of long-gone society.
First Thursdays festivals presented by IU Bloomington Arts & Humanities Council showcase the diversity of arts and humanities at IU Bloomington and offer a welcoming environment for students and other community members to explore new creative outlets and engage with the work of their peers and faculty members.
IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is Indiana University’s newest museum. Opening in 2023, IUMAA will draw upon the strengths and rich collections of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology and the Mathers Museum of World Cultures. Together, these two collections of over 5 million artifacts span across a broad range of the human experience from Indiana’s first peoples to contemporary communities. Through cutting-edge technology and exhibition design, as well as special building features, the museum will provide visitors a new way of seeing its collections, exhibits, and programs--from the “inside-out.”
Themester
Themester is a program of IU's College of Arts and Sciences that combines academic courses, public lectures and exhibits, film showings and other events to engage students and the entire community in a collective learning experience about a timely—even urgent—issue. Since it began in 2009, Themester has offered focused and multi-faceted inquiry into a variety of over-arching topics, including sustainability, labor, behavior, foodways, and beauty. While each discipline examines Themester topics in specific ways, the connections across disciplines suggest new ways of discovering knowledge and engaging in vital conversations relevant to us all. The connection to undergraduate education is paramount. Undergraduate courses that engage the theme are proposed and selected. Programming of interest to students and the public is chosen to complement these courses.