See plants, paintings, planets at annual ASU Collections


Monday, Feb. 16, is Presidents' Day – and it's also a day for celebrating art and culture at ASU.

The Museums, Galleries & Collections Committee will sponsor its seventh annual "We ♥ Love ASU Collections" from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day, with guided tours of 10 museums, galleries and collections on the Tempe campus. The open house is free and open to the public.

Tour maps will be available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at an information table behind Old Main. Coffee and pastries will be served there beginning at 9 a.m., and participants may enjoy free water at Old Main following the tours. Visitors also may take a self-guided tour of Old Main that day.

There also will be door prizes, including hand-made greeting cards by Kaye Lamb, a T-shirt from the Deer Valley Rock Art Center and books from the Arizona Historical Foundation.

The schedule is designed in staggered time slots. Guests also may visit any of the venues on their own during the day (except the Art Museum, which is normally closed on Mondays and will only be open for the tour that day).

Morning tours begin at:
9:30 a.m. – Herbarium (meet in Lobby of Life Sciences C)
10 a.m. – Planetarium (meet in Lobby of Bateman Physical Sciences Center F-Wing.)
10:30 – Arizona Historical Foundation and Luhrs Gallery
11 a.m. – ASU Art Museum
11:30 a.m. – Archaeological Research Institute

Afternoon tours begin at:
1 p.m. – Museum of Anthropology
1:30 p.m. – Mars Space Flight Facility and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
2 p.m. – Step Gallery
2:30 p.m. – Gallery 100
3 p.m. – Harry Wood Gallery and Planetarium

Among the highlights that day:
• Planetarium: “The Milky Way.” a general sky view with emphasis on the Milky Way.
• 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 – folk art objects from Central and South America.
• Plant Herbarium – essentially a "library" of dried plant specimens, is the second largest in the Arid Southwest, with nearly 270,000 mounted specimens.
• Step Gallery – a show that explores the uses of different glazing techniques and examines fibrous materials such as burlap, felt and yarn in nontraditional uses.
• Archaeological Research Institute (ARI) - introduction to archaeology and behind-the-scenes tour of prehistoric Southwest ceramics collection.

The tour is sponsored by the Arizona State Credit Union and ASU Alumni Association.

The Museums, Galleries & Collections Committee is an interdisciplinary group representing nearly a dozen colleges, schools and other entities at ASU.

For more information about the tour, go to www.asu.edu/museums.

Parking is available at the Fulton Center garage, College Avenue and University Drive, for $3 per hour, with an $8 maximum.