The Adventures in Education Fair is part of Graduate Education Week, which takes place throughout the State of Missouri. The Fair itself is an opportunity for departments from all over campus to set up a booth that represents their research, projects, and what they study. Four enterprising Art History & Archaeology students [Morgan Higley, Liz DeRidder, Doug Underwood, Anne Griffith, pictured below with their second place award] created an exhibit entitled “Easels and Excavations” that caught the imagination of quite a few young visitors as well as the attention of Fair judges.
In the words of recent MU Art History and Archaeology Master’s graduate Anne Griffith:
“For the Art History and Archaeology Department we wanted to represent both aspects and set up a table with art books and reproductions of famous paintings for children to color with crayons. For the archaeology aspect, we set up a small mock excavation with a Roman theme, burying beads, ‘Roman’ coins, and small models of soldiers in a large Tupperware container filled with sand. We gave the kids small shovels and sifters and, as they dug through the pit and recovered items, asked them if they could tell by looking at the material remains who used to ‘live’ in the pit. We also set up a table with archaeological field kits (containing compasses, measuring tapes, trowels), pottery sherds borrowed from the museum, and pamphlets about family programs at the Museum of Art and Archaeology. “
Museums like ours obviously have to collect and curate the treasures of the past, but without education and communication of those resources our work is still incomplete. Congratulations to Morgan, Liz, Doug, and Anne for completing the circle with “Easels and Excavations”.