[meteorite-list] Public Invited to Arizona State University Open House

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Feb 9 15:05:46 2005
Message-ID: <200502092005.MAA15377_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/tempe/articles/0209t-tour09Z10.html

ASU museums, galleries, collections invite public
Srianthi Perera
The Arizona Republic
February 9, 2005

What do the latest pictures from Mars, a graduation gown from 1909 and
one of the world's best meteorite collections have in common? They are
all available for the public to see free of charge at the Arizona State
University Open House on Friday.

The museums, galleries and collections so close to home may be the
best-kept secrets in the Valley, but the curators are trying their best
to reveal them.

"The whole point is for the public to know that they exist on campus,"
said Rose Minetti, curatorial specialist of Archives and Manuscripts,
who led some of the tours last year and was disappointed at the turnout.
One hosted tour had only six people.

"We are advocates for the museums, galleries and collections on the
campus. Most of these venues have a research unit attached to it. They
are not here for nothing. Only students, researchers and scholars use
it. Why not the public?" she said.

In its third year, the open house includes offerings in art, the
sciences and history. Many are behind-the-scenes opportunities, such as
the tour of the ASU Planetarium and learning how the Art Museum takes
care of its more than 4,000 fine-art prints.

Other points of interest in the morning and afternoon tours include the
Mars Space Flight Facility that has animations of the Mars Exploration
Rover landings; the Nelson Fine Arts Center where master prints of
Rembrandt are stored; the Museum of Anthropology, which is preparing for
this year's first exhibit on textile traditions from Southeast Asia; the
Hayden Library's Luhrs Gallery, which is presenting an exhibition of
Arizona's clothing styles over 100 years, and the Vascular Plant
Herbarium that houses 250,000 pressed plant specimens.

At last year's event, 75 to 100 people attended but most did not go on
the hosted tours, preferring instead to explore on their own.

Minetti and other members of the Museums, Galleries and Collection
Committee are promoting their respective facilities with the help of
marketing brochures, a Web page and events.

A new event, "Exhibits at Noon," was organized in September and is
slated for the fourth Wednesday of every month. The next in the series
is on Feb. 23 at the Museum of Anthropology, which is presenting a
textile exhibit called "Loom-inous Creations" that will show how
textiles from Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand tell a story about
each culture.
Received on Wed 09 Feb 2005 03:05:32 PM PST