NEWSLETTER Spring 2010 The newsletter of the Spurlock Museum Ie n S d 3 edUCATIOn UPdATe: GALLeRIeS GO InTeRACTIVe 4 MOLAS FROM THe SAn BLAS ISLAndS 5 eGYPTIAn MUMMY 6 MUSeUM PLAnS CenTennIAL CeLeBRATIOn 8 CALendAR OF eVenTS CoLE L gE of LibERaL Arts aNd SCiENCES, UNivERSiTy of iLLiNoiS aT URbaNa-ChaMpaigN aMSSg E a E fRoM ThE MUSEUM diRECToR By Wayne Pitard, Director i am happy to report that in spite of gallery of European Cultures. Read the financial difficulties the University more about other planned installa- has been facing this academic year, the tions in “The galleries go interactive” Spurlock Museum has continued to on page 3. We have also just received flourish and move in innovative new a grant from the office of the vice directions. of course, the most exciting Chancellor for public Engagement to development of the autumn has been develop a major new interactive area our achievement of accreditation from highlighting the current research on the american association of Museums, our wonderful collection of ancient an honor that only 5 percent of muse- Mesopotamian cylinder seals. This ums in the United States have obtained. exhibit will be a collaboration between accreditation officially recognizes the the Museum and the advanced visu- high standards of museum practices alization Laboratory of the National that our staff has instituted here since Center for Supercomputing applica- we opened in 2002, as well as the tions here at the University, headed quality of the building we inhabit. This by donna Cox. Expect to see this new S p R i N g 2010 recognition allows us to have a voice feature by the end of the year. WiLLiaM R. aNd CLaRiCE v. in the ongoing national discussions as we approach our centennial SpURLoCK MUSEUM concerning the direction of museum celebration in 2011, the entire staff University of illinois at Urbana-Champaign 600 S. gregory St. policy and development at a higher wishes to thank all of you for your Urbana, il 61801 phone: (217) 333-2360 level than was possible before, and it continued support. The encourage- fax: (217) 244-9419 reinforces the status of the Spurlock ment we receive from the general director, Wayne pitard Museum as one of the jewels of the public, the area schools, and the Uni- Museum hours: Tuesday: Noon - 5 pm University of illinois. versity community has helped to bring Wednesday, Thursday, friday: 9 am - 5 pm if you haven’t visited the Museum us to an exciting new phase of our Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm Sunday: Noon - 4 pm in a while, come back and take a history. We invite you to come to the Monday: closed look. Changes in our feature galleries creative range of programs and events www.spurlock.illinois.edu are beginning to appear. The South we have scheduled here throughout both The newsletter for Spurlock Museum is published through american part of the Laubin gallery of this year and next and to continue to get the generous support of the Spurlock Museum guild and the Spurlock Museum board. Spurlock Museum board american indian Cultures is in the final familiar with our magnificent collection of publication Committee: allan Campbell, Robin fossum (chair), Wayne pitard, James Sinclair, yu (ian) Wang, and stages of a significant reworking. The artifacts from around the world. beth Watkins. The newsletter is produced for the Museum by the College of Liberal arts and Scitences office of first of our kid-friendly interactives is Communications and Marketing (10.044). up and running in the Simonds pyatt On the cover: A shaman curing ceremony depicted on a mola in the Spurlock Museum collection. This page: Some of the many ways the people of the ancient Mediterranean world wore simple rectangles of cloth. visitors, dressed as European elites from centuries past, admire their fashionable finery. ECd U aT i o N U p daT E By Beth Watkins The Galleries Go inTeracTive Inspired by the success of last year’s temporary supplies to create exhibit Children Just Like Me, which was full of the many styles of fun, touchable activities and props, Director ancient Greek and Wayne Pitard and the Education and Collections Roman clothing sections have developed some new hands-on, based on a simple kid-friendly components for Spurlock’s feature rectangle of fabric. In galleries. Our first interactive installation is a the Americas, where station in the European gallery that was built artifacts comprise for the Campbell Gallery exhibit Why Knot? in a dazzling array of 2007. At this station, visitors can try on 16th- natural materials, we century-style ruffs (lace collars), then admire hope to let visitors themselves in a mirror as they stand behind explore some of the a large wooden cut-out painted with period more unusual ones clothing to get the full effect of these elaborate in “touch boxes.” Horn, hides, sinew, quills, the opportunity the exhibit created to put new and ostentatious accessories. shells, and feathers hide in cubbyholes as visi- interpretive content in our feature galleries. Clothing and adornment items are popular tors bravely reach in and try to guess what their Because the modules of Children Just Like Me items for both display and visitor activities. The fingers are feeling. Our educators have already were installed throughout the whole Museum, Museum’s teaching collection—artifacts that tested out a variety of hands-on experiences both staff and visitors enjoyed these new ways of can be loaned to schools or used in hands-on related to mummification in ancient Egypt. understanding our exhibits and relating to the programs in the Museum—already contains Among the most popular is sampling a set of artifacts. One of our planned projects builds on dozens of fun things to wear. Some of these will materials used in mummification: feeling linen the public’s response to Children Just Like Me by be put in activity areas in the feature galleries: strips used to wrap the mummy; smelling the placing a series of temporary labels mud cloth in Africa, saris and other Indian- oils, precious resins, and other materials used on exhibit cases to highlight influenced textiles in Asia, and instructions and in embalming; and examining amulets and artifacts that fit thematic charms. And in Mesopotamia, a multimedia discussions across the gal- installation called “Miniature Masterpieces: The leries, such as children’s Art of the Mesopotamian Cylinder Seal” will items, jewelry, and cur- invite visitors to investigate the seals’ artistry rency. These temporary and imagery in a way never before possible as labels not only can add they explore the stunningly detailed images of new information without these ancient pieces created in the Museum’s the cost of changing the polynomial texture mapping photo studio. This permanent labels but also project is funded in part through a grant from enable the Museum to raise the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Public questions that encourage Engagement awarded to Director Pitard and visitors to look at artifacts in the Illinois Emerging Digital Research and Edu- new ways. cation in Arts Media Institute (eDream). (See the “Message from the Museum Director” on page 2 for details on this exciting new project!) In addition to the interactive as- pect of Children Just Like Me, Spurlock staff members were also excited by 3 newa CqUiSiTioNS fromH T e SAn BLAS ISLAndS By James Sinclair The Spurlock Museum constantly enriches its colorful cotton cloth. These layers are sewn earliest extant molas come from the 1920s. collections with new acquisitions. Recently, together with fine, almost invisible, stitch- The pieces in the Kieffer-Lopez collection gerard Lopez donated his collection of over ing, and then the maker cuts holes in shapes date to the early 1960s and late 1970s when 50 mola panels from the San blas islands of and patterns to reveal one or more of the Mr. Lopez’s travels took him to panama and panama. The term mola refers layers below. decorative the San blas islands. The contem- to both the everyday blouse stitching of differ- porary politics and daily life of worn by the Kuna indian ent colors is used to these time periods are reflected women and the individual enhance the design and in the designs on the molas in appliquéd rectangular panels add details to the panel. his collection. Mola designs are attached to the front and back The embroidery stitches inspired by a variety of sources: of a blouse. This set of pieces used include straight, the natural world, tribal legends, is just one component of the back, buttonhole, chain, past historical events, dreams, and larger Kieffer-Lopez collection of interna- cross, and couching. imaginary thoughts. designs based on the tional textiles. The making of molas dates back to the environment dominate most of the panels; Molas are handmade by the women, and mid-19th century. because of their fragility however, the material and political culture each piece is a one-of-a-kind design consist- and constant use, no pieces from the 19th of the modern world has influenced some of ing of two to eight layers of fabric, usually century are known to have survived, and the the more recent motifs. 4 SRL p U o C K M U SEUM N E WSLETTER reseC aR h UpdaTE More details about Egyptian Mummy Uncovered By Sarah Wisseman In 1989, the University Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeo- logical Materials (ATAM) organized an interdisciplinary team to examine the Spurlock Museum’s human Egyptian mummy. Our goals were to assess the age, sex, medical history, social status, and cause of death of the person inside the wrappings, all without damaging the mummy.