Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Spurlock Museum [PAGE 6]

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DESIGNING A MUSEUM FOR TODAY'S WORLD

Museums today are dynamic institutions that are called upon to engage and be responsive to an increasingly diverse public. The Spurlock Museum is designed to balance the demands of the public for greater access to the Museum's resources with the staff's responsibilities for researching, documenting, preserving, and sharing information about these artifacts. To achieve this goal, museum staff worked with a team of architects, engineers, curators, designers, and fabricators. beginning in the mid-1990s, to address thousands of design issues ranging from storage systems for sensitive textiles and suits of armor to a performance space suitable for dance troupes and scholarly lectures. They investigated the best type of landscaping to reduce the potential for insect damage inside the Museum. They located the woodshop where it wouldn't disturb employees or visitors. They designed workspaces to simultaneously accommodate photography, data processing, and Web development. Work on the exhibits began in 1997. The galleries were planned to the smallest detail. The staff worked with the curators—many of whom are University faculty—to articulate themes and select the nearly 2,000 artifacts to be displayed. Texts for

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