Research, teaching, and the preservation of knowledge
Indiana University’s collections are among its most precious educational, research, and scholarly resources. They are vital tools for scholars and scientists from nearly all disciplines. They inspire students and are vital parts of their learning and understanding. And they draw people from beyond the university to view and study them. Collectively, they represent IU’s commitment to that third mission of great universities—the preservation of knowledge which, along with the creation of knowledge and the dissemination of knowledge, have been the three fundamental missions of universities since they emerged in human cultures over 25 centuries ago.
Today, as we dedicate the Collections Teaching, Research, and Exhibition Center and the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, we celebrate two new facilities that will serve as powerful vehicles for advancing IU’s research and teaching missions, as they, at the same time, embody IU’s commitment to its third mission—the preservation of knowledge.
Indiana University's collections
IU is home to more than 300 collections of material objects—across all campuses—with most being on the Bloomington campus. These include not only many significant art, cultural, and historical collections, but also a vast array of unique specimens that are part of IU’s 94 natural science collections ranging from astronomy to zooarchaeology. It is estimated that, including the holdings of University Libraries, IU’s collections contain well over 50 million individual material objects.
Indiana University has, over many years, done much to carry forward the mission of the preservation of knowledge through its outstanding libraries and museums; through investments in digital storage infrastructure; and through many other initiatives, including the bold, visionary, and enormously successful Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative, which has digitized nearly 350,000 of IU’s most valuable, and in many cases irreplaceable and unique, time-based audio, video, and film objects.
But, as I noted in my 2017 State of the University address, the time had come for a coherent university-wide approach as to how IU’s collections are managed, organized, and housed in the best way to ensure both their most effective use in research and teaching and to ensure they have the specific care and preservation each requires.
In that address, I charged the Office of the Vice President for Research with developing a plan, in consultation with campus academic leadership, to ensure that all the university’s collections are properly housed, maintained, utilized, and curated, as well as ensuring that these valuable assets become better known, more fully utilized in IU’s research and teaching missions, and more fully appreciated by the IU community and the general public.
Much progress has been made toward these aims.
A new website, collections.iu.edu, was created to begin to bring together IU’s collections under one public-facing portal.
IU’s first-ever Executive Director of Collections, Heather Calloway, from whom we will hear in a few moments, was appointed in 2018.
Under the direction of Vice President for Research Fred Cate and Ms. Calloway, IU’s first-ever Collections Strategic Plan was completed in 2019. This plan brings, for the first time, a coherent and coordinated university-wide approach to the management, operations, housing, and preservation of IU’s superb and priceless collections.
That same year saw the grand re-opening of the Eskenazi Museum of Art after a truly dazzling and comprehensive $40 million renovation that allows more of its collection to be displayed in optimal conditions and with greatly expanded facilities for the teaching, research, and curation of its remarkable collections. It has once again taken its rightful place as one of this country's great university art museums.
And earlier this month, we dedicated a magnificent renovation of IU’s Lilly Library, one of the finest special collections libraries in the country, which was superbly renovated thanks to a generous $11 million gift from the Lilly Endowment. This sorely needed, long overdue, and comprehensive renovation has roughly doubled the amount of space available for classes and research based on the library’s priceless collections.
The IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
In my 2019 State of the University address, I announced a further major development that would greatly enhance a number of IU's other important collections—the establishment of the new Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which we dedicate today.
The new museum has been formed from the rich collections of the former Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and the Mathers Museum of World Culture. A principal focus of new museum will be on the pre-Columbian Native American civilizations of the American Midwest and beyond. Central to this will be Indiana University’s unique collection of—and engagement with—artifacts from the Mississippian civilization site in Angel Mounds near Evansville, dating from 1000 to 1450 C.E.—one of the nation’s most significant pre-Columbian archaeological sites and Indiana’s largest, as well as other notable sites in Indiana and the Midwest.
The new museum will also feature holdings from the Mathers Collection from civilizations in other parts of the world or that otherwise help place IU’s pre-Columbian collections in a richer, more relevant context.
The collections were previously housed in a building, the first part of which was opened about 50 years ago, and the second part about 10 years later. Unfortunately, like the Lilly Library, no renovation had taken place since then—and it showed.
The new facility will be a world-class museum whose collections and research resources, dynamic exhibits, engaging and accessible programming, and other outreach efforts will serve IU’s education and research missions and make it a leading destination for scholars, students, and the public.
In all of these activities, the museum’s executive director, Ed Herrmann, and his colleagues will work in close partnership with the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, of which the Angel Mounds site is a part. The Museum will also collaborate closely with North American Native American and archaeological communities and other stakeholders to ensure the ethical stewardship of these collections including compliance with NAGPRA and other laws, and adherence to best curatorial practices.
The Collections, Teaching, Research & Exhibition Center
And in the spring of 2020, we announced that the McCalla School would undergo a $6 million renovation, funded principally by the State of Indiana, and that it would serve as the home of IU’s new Collections Teaching, Research & Exhibition Center, which we also dedicate today.
The center will serve as an accessible hub for faculty, students, visiting researchers, and the public, allowing collections to be used across disciplinary boundaries, so that objects can be connected in new and imaginative ways, including via physical exhibits, digital content, classroom instruction, hands-on learning lab interactions, and public performances in the building’s new multipurpose room.
The center’s rotating exhibits and events will not focus on a single type of collection; rather, they will feature materials from across Indiana University, with an emphasis on collaboration across disciplines and with a multiplicity of curatorial voices. This interdisciplinary approach is one that few universities—indeed, few collections anywhere—can offer, and it will allow IU to give new life to these collections and to enhance its research, teaching, and service mission.
Special thanks
There is a long list of people to whom we owe enormous debts of gratitude for helping us reach this moment.
As I mentioned earlier, both of these projects are being funded through capital appropriations made to IU in the last state budget and other state funds. We are extremely grateful to the Legislature and Governor Eric Holcomb for their support of these projects vital to the state's history.
And we are deeply and most sincerely grateful to Gayle Cook for her support of these initiatives. Gayle, her late husband, Bill, and the entire Cook family have long been among Indiana University’s greatest partners and supporters. The Cook family is truly among the ranks of only a few families in the history of IU who have left an indelible mark on the university with their great vision and generosity. And, of course, particularly relevant to today’s celebration is the legendary commitment to historic preservation of Gayle and the Cook family.
We are also grateful to the John W. Anderson Foundation and the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, whose additional support is helping to make the renovation of the McCalla School possible.
I want to thank Provost Lauren Robel, who has been an invaluable partner in the development of the facilities we dedicate today and in so many other facilities on the Bloomington campus.
I also want to commend Vice President for Research Fred Cate for his tireless efforts to guide the development of IU’s strategic plan for collections and the development of these two new facilities, as well as Executive Director of University Collections Heather Calloway, and Ed Herrmann, Executive Director of the Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, for their outstanding work in helping us reach this moment.
I also want to commend Vice President for Capital Planning and Facilities Tom Morrison, as well as the many design and construction professionals, both internal and external, who have played major roles in this project.
Conclusion
Over its 200-year history, Indiana University has amassed collections that would leave many nations envious.
We have a responsibility—to art, culture, history, science, and to the citizens of Indiana and the world who have helped us build these collections—to do all that we can to document all artifacts, share them through exhibitions here and around the world, and preserve them with the best tools available. To do anything less would be to fail in our mission as a public research university.
This morning, with the dedication of the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Collections Teaching, Research, and Exhibition Center, we take a major step forward in fulfilling this responsibility.