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September 2001
As many of you know,
I am on leave this semester, and the Museum has reached a position
after five years of development that enables me to depart for a
short period of time. Serving in my absence is Professor Dan Blake
from the Department of Geology. Dan has a BS in Geology from the
University, took a Ph.D. at California Berkeley, is a Professor
of Geology, and he is a former director of the U of I Museum of
Natural History. So the museum is in good hands under Dan for the
Fall semester.
An update on our new
building. Building construction headaches arose with floors and
stairs construction, but these problems have been resolved. The
staircase treads were replaced, and we have a new floor covering
that, based on both aesthetics and durability, is better than the
original. Although there was a lot of heartache, I think we have
a much nicer presentation for our galleries with our improved floors
and stairs.
The University of Illinois
Foundation and I have been working closely on our opening day celebration
which is scheduled for Thursday, September 26, 2002. It is currently
planned for the afternoon, but the time could change. Jim Gobberdiel
from the Foundation has been working with us to link the celebration
with the international or global university, and we will be a featured
presentation of that week's festivities. We hope you all will come
and join us in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The news is good in terms
of progress toward opening day. Our fabricators are working diligently
on our props and casework. We will be receiving the casework and
background materials for the Museum's exhibits in three or four
different installments, the first to come in November. Once the
material is received our Museum staff will be working on the exhibits
and placing the artifacts within the various pieces of casework.
With the good news comes
a bit of a warning. Once the Museum's doors are open, there will
still be a lot of work to do. The Museum needs to be accredited,
so that we can bring in the finest travelling exhibits. The Museum
unfortunately will have exhausted its fiscal resources, and therefore
we need a new campaign to replenish our endowments. All of the money
that we have accrued thus far has gone into opening the doors of
the Museum. There is a new challenge to find the funds to keep our
operating support at a level that is high enough to support the
programs that we expect from the Spurlock Museum. Dean Delia, Dean
Osterhout, and the Foundation have already been working and preparing
for this new challenge, and we hope that the friends of the Museum
and our future friends will be able to support the Museum and its
programs to ensure quality education during the years ahead.
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