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Help Us Celebrate Spurlock Museum Week!

  • Post Date: 5/19/2022
  • Author: Katya Reno, marketing and communications coordinator
  • Reading Time: 2 minute read

We invite you to join us in celebrating the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures for the work we do in community building and the spaces we provide for discovery and life-long learning. “Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples” (International Council of Museums).

Now more than ever we need the community that museums provide. This is why during Spurlock Museum Week 2022, we are asking for your help in supporting our community curation programs. Over the last year, we have worked closely with community partners to create exhibits like, Sewn in Memory: AIDS Quilt Panels from Central Illinois. And we continue to create new exhibits—with three exciting community-curated exhibits coming in 2022–2023. Not only does co-curation align with contemporary museum best practices, it creates a richer museum-going experience and highlights the work of community members, who often have decades of experience working with and for their communities.

  • 5 people pose with masks in the sewn memory exhibit
    Some of the community collaborators for Sewn in Memory: AIDS Quilt Panels from Central Illinois. From left: Mike Benner, former executive director, GCAP; Professor Kathryn J Oberdeck; Illinois Public Media Director of Community Content & Engagement Kim Kranich; Jerry Carden, founding member GCAP; Beth Watkins, education and publications coordinator at Spurlock.
  • outdoor art in the shape of tentacles against the sky
    The Great ARTdoors is a local initiative, created in collaboration with the Spurlock Museum, 40North, Urbana Park District, Champaign Park District, and Urbana Arts and Culture, to help fund area artists. The program is back this summer, with works on display beginning in June.
  • five museum workers smile in a pose outdoors in front of the museum
    We offer paid internships and employment to University students, many of whom go on to become museum professionals at top-tier museums throughout the country.
  • Spurlock Museum week 2022 title decorative image

Please help us to reach our goal of 25 donors by the end of the week on Saturday, May 21! Visit the campaign page at With Illinois (external link).

  • spurlock museum week poster highlighting community curation in text with QR code to campaign page