In the Fall 2013 issue of Expedition, Williams Director Julian Siggers outlined the Penn Museum’s new mission statement—The Penn Museum transforms understanding of the human experience—and the four pillars of our mandate to fulfill this mission: research, teaching, collections stewardship, and public engagement.
Using this new mission statement as a guide, the Museum has been working on a new Strategic Plan through 2020, outlining key priorities which will support the four pillars, as well as the values central to the Penn Compact 2020: Inclusion, Innovation, and Impact.
Dr. Siggers believes that at the heart of everything we set out to achieve lies afirm belief that the Museum should strive to change the way our visitors see the past and transform the way in which they see the world and their place in it. The new initiatives will be our primary focus, alongside stewardship of and increasing digital access to the magnificent collection entrusted to our care.
The first initiative is a new center for the teaching of archaeological science that will ensure Penn’s eminence in our field. The Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials, a major collaboration with Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, will be housed in the new Conservation and Teaching labs scheduled to open at the Museum in August 2014.
The second initiative is a complete renovation and reinstallation of the galleries that house our iconic collections from Asia, the Ancient Near East, and Egypt. A highlight will be the installation of architectural elements from the Palace of Merenptah—one of the few Egyptian palaces ever excavated and the one most substantially represented in a museum collection anywhere in the world—at full height in the 3rd floor Egyptian Gallery.This has been a long-awaited project, since the Coxe Wing was opened in 1927 with insu:cient floor load capacity in that gallery to safely bear the weight of the large-scale monuments.The Museum intends the renovated galleries to reflect the Museum’s own past and current research.The Egyptian Galleries, for example, will include collections from past excavations at Abydos, together with breaking news about the current fieldwork led by Dr. Josef Wegner, which contributed to the recent discovery of the tomb of an unknown pharaoh, Woseribre-Senebkay (see article in this issue).
The third initiative is a new partnership with the School District of Philadelphia—driven by the Museum’s public education mission and the Penn Compact 2020’s commitment to local engagement—that will serve every 7th grade public school student in the city.
We will share more details on these initiatives and other aspects of the Strategic Plan in these pages and at future special Penn Museum Member events.