ocated in the newly renovated University Center for the Arts, the Avenir Museum of Design & Merchandising consists of costumes, textiles, and interior artifacts of the ordinary person representing regional, national and international material culture including
- domestic artifacts (primarily 19th and 20th century western costume, textiles, and interior artifacts), and
- global artifacts (international artifacts with emphasis and depth in India, China, Japan, Central Asia, and Latin America).
Unique among the collections are designer garments from Mr. Blackwell, Calvin Klein, Arnold Scaasi, and Carolina Herrera, an extensive lace collection, and 400 kimono.
The Museum includes two galleries, the Avenir Museum Gallery and the Gustafson Gallery, where objects are regularly exhibited and students have the opportunity to work with artifacts according to museum standards of care and handling. A temperature and humidity controlled storage facility houses the 12,000 artifacts that are actively used by faculty and students and available to outside scholars.
Mission
The purpose of the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising is to obtain, document, preserve and exhibit artifacts emphasizing the material culture and cultural transfer of the near environment of the ordinary person.
As a teaching and research facility, the Museum is a repository of historically and culturally significant costumes, textiles, and interior artifacts of the ordinary person. Objects within the Museum represent regional, national, and international cultures. Collections are visual symbols of the department and are often made public through exhibitions. The Museum provides opportunities for
- teaching
- research
- cultural and design awareness
- economic development