A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum
New Seaman Mineral Museum Dedicated
Let's be crystal-clear: the new Seaman Mineral Museum is handsome, classy, and suitable-a fortune that houses a fortune. The building, on Sharon Ave., was dedicated Thursday. A hundred people gathered on a hot afternoon, across from the ATDC, and attested to a milestone more than a century in the making: a permanent home for the official Mineral Museum of Michigan.
The gift shop and two of a planned 14 galleries opened on July 5; already the museum is on pace to double the number of people who visit a year. The reason: instead of being tucked away in the EERC, it's now prominent and accessible, with convenient parking.
MISSION
We conserve and develop our collection to educate people about minerals.
VISION
The A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum strives to be recognized nationally and internationally for its mineral collection and its exhibits. We will actively and conscientiously seek to improve the conservation and to enhance the quality, usefulness, and value of the collection. Our exhibits will be continually improved to educate people about minerals and their relevance to society. The museum will demonstrate its stature as the officially designated mineral museum of the State of Michigan and the mineral museum of the Great Lakes region. The museum will support Michigan Tech's mission, vision, and goals to be an internationally recognized technological university. Success will be measured by the reputation of the museum, its collection and by the impact of its exhibits.
Goal 1 - Enhance the quality, usefulness, and value of the mineral collection.
- actively acquire high quality specimens for the collection through donations, purchase, and exchange.
- deaccession inferior or redundant specimens to facilitate the acquisition of other higher quality, more useful specimens.
- properly conserve collection objects and their associated documentation to preserve and assure their usefulness for future generations
- maintain an emphasis in the collection on Michigan and the Great Lakes and Midwest regions while expanding worldwide coverage
Goal 2 - Continually improve the educational content and public experience of museum exhibits.
- increase graphic and text content of exhibits to improve educational and public experience.
- create and install galleries and exhibits that support new themes
- reorganize galleries to improve thematic flow
- include content that is more technology-based in the interpretation of museum exhibits, including an orientation video
Goal 3 - Enhancing the museum's reputation.
- continue to develop the collection to increase the museum's reputation
- organize museum staffing consistent with sustainability and growth
- create educational exhibits that are new and unique for mineral museums
- maintain an active presence in the professional and popular published mineralogical and geological literature
- provide temporary exhibits at mineral shows of regional, national and international stature
- develop public awareness through talks, website and other museum sponsored events
Goal 4 - Support MichiganTech's mission and vision.
- support education through continuing commitment of teaching of university classes and collaborations
- support undergraduate and graduate research through continuing commitment of supervision, advising, and collaboration
- assist in attracting outstanding new students, faculty, and staff by providing a rich stimulating, aesthetically pleasing, and welcoming educational and cultural environment that illustrates the high quality of Michigan Tech
- expose prospective university donors to an environment that demonstrates the quality of Michigan Tech
- outreach to the public through museum exhibits and activities that demonstrate Michigan Tech as a quality university
- work towards sustainable financial self-sufficiency through increasing annual revenue and endowments
- contribute to the increasing reputation of Michigan Tech by continually striving to increase the reputation of the museum
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