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Spurlock Museum

Established	September 22, 2002
Location	600 S. Gregory Street Urbana, IL 61801 United States
Director	Professor Wayne T Pitard
Website	http://www.spurlock.uiuc.edu/index.html/

Spurlock Museum

The William R. and Clarice V. Spurlock Museum, better known as the Spurlock Museum, is an ethnographic museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Spurlock Museum permanent collection partially includes portions of the collections of two obsolete major museums on the Urbana campus: the World Heritage Museum and the Natural History Museum. The Museum also holds objects on loan from the Krannert Art Museum and other institutions and private individuals. With approximately 45,000 objects in its artifact collection, the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign collect, preserve, document, exhibit, and study objects of cultural heritage. The Museum’s permanent galleries, highlighting the Ancient Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas, describe the diversity of cultures through time and across the globe.

History

The foundations of the modern Spurlock Museum can be traced back to 1911, when the University established the Museum of Classical Archaeology and Art and the Museum of European Culture. These were joined in 1917 by the Oriental Museum, which merged with Classical Archaeology and Art in 1929. In 1954 the Museum of European Culture joined with the merged Classical and Oriental Museum to form a single museum, which was renamed the World Heritage Museum in 1971. From its beginnings in 1911, the museum in its various forms had operated out of a space on the fourth floor of Lincoln Hall. In 1995 a donation by William and Clarice Spurlock made it possible for a new building to be constructed to house the museum and its growing collections. On September 26, 2002, the William R. and Clarice V. Spurlock Museum was opened, along with the A. R. Knight Auditorium, the Rowe Multipurpose Learning Center, and the World Heritage Museum Guild Educational Resource Center. The size and age of the museum's collections posed a task of moving them from Lincoln Hall to the new building. The first complete inventory of the museum's holdings since 1972 was conducted before any items moved, with more than 150 fields of information on each item being recorded. To pack the more than 30,000 items, it took 35 undergraduate students 2 years using 10,000 cubic feet of Styrofoam peanuts and 1,785 boxes and 144 crates. The actual move took just 4 days. Its Focus Gallery hosts national traveling exhibits and other special exhibits. Only 2,000 of the museum's approximately 45,000 artifacts are exhibited at any one time.

Administration

Position	Name	Contact Information
Director	Wayne T. Pitard	[email protected]
Program Coordinator	Karen Flesher	[email protected]
Collections Manager	Christa Deacy-Quinn	[email protected]
Collections Coordinator	Melissa Sotelo	[email protected]
Registrar	Jennifer White	[email protected]
Education and Volunteer Coordinator	Beth Watkins	[email protected]
Education Program Coordinator	Brook Taylor	[email protected]
Head of Security	Harold Bush	[email protected]
Learning Center Coordinator	Julia Robinson	[email protected]

Current Collection

The Spurlock Museum’s artifact collection contains approximately 45,000 objects, covering six continents and one million years of human cultural history. A few of the significant collections include Parthenon frieze casts, Merovingian bronzes, Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, and Amazonian bark cloth. Artifact preservation and education are the main jobs of Spurlock Museum. Preservation is achieved by keeping artifacts in storage, and in following professional standards the Museum only displays about 3 percent of its holdings at any one time. Stored artifacts can be made available for scholarly study or loans to other institutions, as well as serve as a core for temporary exhibitions. They may also be used through the information and images provided on the internet.

The Fred A. Freund Collection of Chinese and Japanese Wood Carvings

This collection of 155 Japanese and Chinese wood carvings and associated materials was received as a gift of Mr. Fred A. Freund. Donated in eight parts between 1999 and 2007, the artifacts date from the Edo and Meiji periods in Japan and from the Qing Dynasty in China. The subject material depicted includes an assortment of human, animal, utilitarian and abstract images.

The Crocker Land Expedition-Collection from the Arctic

The Crocker Land Expedition Collection consists of over 200 artifacts and hundreds of photos collected between 1913 and 1917 by an Arctic exploration team led by ethnologist Donald B. MacMillan. The photographs highlight the Inuit, landscapes, and wildlife while the ethnographic or cultural artifacts include hunting and whaling tools, clothing and sled equipment.

The Edgar J. Banks Collection of Sumerian and Babylonian Clay Tablets

This collection of approximately 1750 inscribed tablets from ancient sites of Umman and Drehem in Mesopotamia dates from the Third Dynasty of Ur in the 21st and 20th centuries BCE to the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian periods(ca. 625-520 BCE). This collection includes texts written in both the Sumerian and the Akkadian languages. The script called cuneiform, is the earliest writing system in the world.

A private letter on papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, written in a Greek hand of the second century AD (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 932, (1914.21.0010), now kept in the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois

Traveling Exhibits

Calypso Music in Postwar America:

In the Campbell Gallery, Calypso Music in Postwar America: Photographs and Illustrations 1945–1960 explores the major impact of calypso music from Trinidad on the popular culture of the United States after World War II. During the postwar years, Americans were captivated by calypso’s poetic statements, social observations and lively rhythms. Rare photographs and promotional graphics are featured and trace the calypso trend in phonograph recordings, song publishing, nightclub acts, concerts, Broadway shows, and Hollywood movies. By presenting documentation of a wide range of performers, the exhibit examines how calypso’s popularity was shaped by mass media, a booming entertainment industry, Caribbean migration to the U.S., American military service and tourism in the Caribbean, and the postwar folk music revival. Calypso Music in Postwar America was organized by the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It will be on display from Tuesday, March 25, to Sunday, August 10, 2008.

Qak'aslem, Qakem: Kaqchikel Maya Weaving

The second new exhibit this spring, Qak'aslem, Qakem: Kaqchikel Maya Weavings, is a collaboration between the Spurlock Museum, visiting curator Peter Rohloff, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Running from March 25, 2008, through June 8, 2008, in the Campbell Lobby, this display discusses three Maya woven textiles. Each piece represents a different village in the Kaqchikel-speaking region of Guatemala. One of these pieces, a po’t (shirt) of flowers, is a commissioned work, woven for the Museum by Magda Silvia Sotz Mux of San Juan Comalapa. Qak’aslem, Qakem is supported by the Illinois Arts Council and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Ms. Sotz Mux will be visiting the University during March and April and will demonstrate her weaving techniques on her backstrap loom in special events on April 12 and 19, 2008, at the Museum.

Permanent Exhibits

The following six Galleries make up the core structure of the Spurlock Museum. These galleries are permanent and separate the museum's collection into sub-categories. The majority of the museum's 45,000 artifacts are rotated through these galleries. The Museum’s permanent galleries, highlight the present and future cultures located in the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas.

Workman Gallery of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures
Workman Gallery of Asian Cultures
Faletti Gallery of African Cultures
Laubin Gallery of American Indian Culture
Leavitt Gallery of Middle Eastern Cultures
Simonds Pyatt Gallery of European Cultures

Ancient Egyptian statue from Zamle Society (a recreation)

Handcrafted Chinese weavings

Collection of Various ancient Greek sculptures and remnants, including the marble head of the Roman empress Fausta

This dragon-like figure is featured in theatrical performances done during temple festivals on the Island of Bali in Indonesia

Assortment of baskets weaved by Central Plains Native Americans

Suit of Armor discovered in Europe during the Middle Ages

Education and Public Engagement

Tours and programs are available to groups of ten or more on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 am to 5 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 4 pm. Most are free of charge, but do have maximum group sizes. Fees and group size limitations are listed with the tour and program descriptions below. Reservations for tours, guided or self-guided, are required to ensure that all groups have full and equal Museum access and must be made at least three weeks prior to the visit date.

Location and access

Admission:
Free, suggested donation is $3.

Location:
600 S. Gregory Street
Urbana, IL 61801
On the campus of the University of Illinois, just to the east of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

The Spurlock Museum building offers the following public areas and facilities:
•Five feature galleries covering Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, Europe, The Americas, and The Ancient Mediterranean.
•A focus gallery for rotating exhibits that change twice a year.
•The 215-seat Knight Auditorium, site of lectures by local and visiting scholars as well as performances by musicians, dancers, actors, storytellers, and choral groups.
•The Dene W. and Marie C. Zahn Learning Center, a space for small-group activities, including teacher training workshops and intergenerational camps, as well as individual exploration through artifact handling and computer interactives.
•The World Heritage Museum Guild Educational Resource Center, currently under development, where educators and students will be able to come and borrow a wide assortment of educational materials.

Times and dates

Museum Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 12-5
Wed, Thurs, Fri: 9-5
Saturday: 10-4
Sunday: 12-4

External Links

Spurlock Museum Homepage - http://www.spurlock.uiuc.edu/index.html Category:University_museums_in_the_United_States