ASU celebrates Museum Day

Since 1977, museums around the world have joined to celebrate their mission with an International Museum Day each May 18.

Museums are invited to plan events sometime around that day, and ASU’s museums, galleries and collections have done so for the past several years.

This year’s International Museum Day tour at ASU will be on Wednesday, May 13, to coincide with Commencement Day festivities.

The 2009 ASU event will have two special additions: Grady Gammage Jr. will be at the Piper Writers House from noon to 1 p.m. to tell stories of growing up in the house, which once was home to ASU presidents.

And, Arizona residents are invited to write brief stories or descriptions about their favorite museums around the world. The essays will be collected and copies distributed on May 13. Mail essays to Judith Smith, jps@asu.edu, or ASU Media Relations, Box 5011, Tempe, AZ 85287-5011.

International Museum Day at ASU will include special presentations at six venues on the Tempe campus, beginning at 9 a.m.
The schedule includes:

9-10 a.m.: Mars Space Flight Facility
10-11 a.m.: Meteorite Studies Museum
11 a.m.-noon: Space Photography Lab
Noon-1 p.m.: Talk by Grady Gammage Jr.
1-2 pm.: Museum of Anthropology
2-3 p.m.: ASU Art Museum
3-4 p.m.: Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter Camera

Among the highlights of the day:

• Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) – will launch in April of this year. Among the spacecraft's six instruments is the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), which will be based at ASU in Interdisciplinary A Building. This incredible facility features a public viewing gallery of lunar exploration history and access to the Science Operations Center (SOC), where LROC images will be received and analyzed.

• Museum of Anthropology: “Simply Formal,” running in conjunction with the annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) annual conference, held April 8 – 11 in Phoenix, includes ceramics by artists selected for the legacy of their work over many years, interspersed with objects from the School of Human Evolution and Social Change’s whole pot archaeological collection.

• ASU Art Museum: “Potters on Paper: Selections from the Collection,” which features prints and works on paper by artists primarily known for their work in clay.

International Museum Day continues to grow in popularity each year, according to the International Council of Museums. In 2008, record audiences attended events in the more than 20,000 participating museums in 90 countries, from Australia (and Arizona) to Zimbabwe.

Parking is available in the Fulton Parking Structure at the northeast corner of College Avenue and University Drive, Tempe, and the Apache Structure on Apache Boulevard (enter on Forest Avenue). An information table will be located in front of the Memorial Union.

For more information about ASU’s Museum Day, contact Karrie Porter Brace, (480) 965-0776 or karrie.porterbrace@asu.edu.