With the new academic year upon us, you will see some changes in the Art Museum.  Our long-time store manager, Rosie Chapp, is retiring at the end of August.  Her smiling face, helpful assistance, and buying skills will be missed and we wish her all the best in retirement. 

This fall we will be transitioning the Museum Store into a smaller, more manageable operation.  It will feature items produced by the museum such as exhibition catalogs and posters, logo items such as lapel pins and collar shirts, and the occasional monograph or other items important to the museum's exhibition and collection programs.  An inventory display will be created in the Art Museum Lobby after the September 9 opening (6 – 8 pm).  In the coming month, an online Museum Store will convey the full breadth of available inventory.

The space currently allocated to the store will become a new Resource Room.  This multi-use space will have information on artists and exhibitions, art magazines, and art-related monographs and exhibition catalogs.  Many of these are hard to find, offering valuable information for research, reference, and study.  Eventually, the Resource Room will have tables and chairs to accommodate class use with the curator of collections, Nicole Crawford.  With prior planning, art objects from the collection may be transported to this room for class discussion..  We also intend to add several desks for museum interns and graduate assistants as well as several computer stations for student and public use that will significantly advance our outreach across and beyond campus.

While we are disappointed by the need to reduce the scope of our Museum Store, we are excited to advance the Art Museum's mission by adding a publicly accessible meeting and resource venue to our program.