Kelsey Museum Of Archaeology

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

The Vision The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is in the midst of its first major expansion since its founding 75 years ago. We have embarked on an $11,000,000 fundraising campaign to improve the quality of our public displays, our teaching, and our research facilities. Thanks to generous private donations, our planned 13,000 sq. ft. new wing will allow us to mount large, innovative public exhibits and bring out of storage objects that have never been displayed. Fellowships and research support for students and faculty will allow them to produce creative and visionary studies which can be integrated into our public programs. University-based archaeological museums such as the Kelsey are much more than storehouses and display cases of antiquity. They are vibrant centers of ongoing research and teaching as well as sites for disseminating the results of scholarly research to the general public.

Conservation Internship Program Endowment: $1 millionConservation of objects and works of art under the stewardship of any museum is one of its most critical missions. No artifact can be safely studied, displayed, loaned, or used until it is properly treated and stabilized. Antiquities are subject to a number of diseases and problems that are constantly monitored by a conservator. Currently, the Kelsey Museum has only one full-time conservator. Given the nature, size, and number of activities at the museum, this is far from an ideal situation. We plan to establish an endowed conservation internship that will not only help in the ongoing care of our collections but also provide valuable training for young conservators. There are very few comparable internships in the country, and the range of materials in the Kelsey's collections offers a unique opportunity for training and educating the next generation of conservators.

Exhibits Preparator Endowment: $1 million Exhibitions represent one of the most important and accessible ways we can bring the results of our research to the public. Preparations for exhibitions are, however, a substantial undertaking, involving the curator-in-charge, designers, builders, conservators, and registrars. The single exhibit preparator now on staff at the Museum helps design, build, and install all of our exhibits. With the addition of a new wing to the Kelsey, we will be mounting not only more but also more ambitious exhibitions. Consequently, the hiring of an additional exhibit preparator is vital.

Faculty Research Fellowships: $2 million endowed $50,000 annuallyThe faculty involved in archaeological field work and collections research travel to distant sites to collect samples which then need to be scientifically analyzed before they become permanent additions to the Kelsey's collection. An endowment would allow the Museum to award fellowships for faculty to make these trips, purchase the necessary equipment, analyze their samples, and publish the scholarly results of their research.