Marti Funke climbs to the upper level of the storage facility in the University of Mississippi Museum next to the painting enclosure. DM Photo | Clara Turnage
Bright, fluorescent lights flicker in the storage area, reflecting off of a towering chain link fence. On it, painting after painting dangle twenty feet above the concrete floor.
Above even the lofty enclosure, a second story houses a range of relics from Caribbean masks and Egyptian scarabs to textiles and housewares.
Just a few feet away, there are rows after rows of cupboards, each containing artifacts that are thousands of years old. Pottery molded by men and women who died 2,000 years ago rest comfortably on the shrine-like shelves; behind them, a wooden telescope, its lens pointlessly aimed at the starless ceiling.
These relics, both scientific revelations and works of art, inhabit the realm found behind the closed storage facility doors at The University of Mississippi Museum. Because the museum neither has the space to exhibit all of these pieces nor the time to rotate exhibits more than it currently does, these pieces cannot be shown. Of the collections the museum houses, 85 percent are not on exhibition.
“The majority of our collections are all in storage. We just don’t have enough display space; it’s a problem that every museum has,” said Marti Funke, collections manager for the museum. “I mean, if you have 15 percent of your collection on display, you’re doing pretty good.”
These pieces aren’t confined to storage by choice, however; there simply isn’t enough room to display all of the pieces within a year.
“It’s not that one collection is more important. We just have so many now that we try to touch on all aspects,” Funke said. “We would love to expand. I think that’s always an option. If we could, we have the things to fill the space. And it would offer more on-view and a lot of things.”
Within this concealed collection resides an assortment of Theora Hamblett’s paintings and glasswork that is, as Funke said, “by far the largest single entity collection of her work.”
Hamblett, the revered, late Mississippi artist whose work is a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, willed almost all of her “Dreams and Visions” collection to the university, along with many other individual works.
Until recently, these works dwelled within the museum’s vast storage, hanging placidly on the gliding panes and safeguarded from any form of damage but also concealed from its admirers. The museum has recently corrected this underrepresentation, however.
“We, for the first time – myself and a former curator at the Mississippi Museum of Art – teamed up to curate a traveling exhibit of her work, which has never been done,” Funke said.
This remedy, however, does not unveil even a portion of what is in storage, and it is not just art that hides behind the museum walls either.
The Millington Barnard collection is comprised of over 500 nineteenth century items used by Fredrick Barnard and John Millington, university professors from 1848 to 1861. Millington was a renowned scientist and one of the four original faculty members at the university; Barnard applied $100,000 to construct the university’s first astronomical observatory.
A number of these instruments are on permanent display in the museum, but the surfeit is in storage.
“Some people will say that scientific instruments aren’t art, and that’s fine – we’re not an art museum. We’re the university museum,” Funke said. “I think any topic can be brought back to something in this museum. I think every class could come over here and find something to relate.”
The premier collection of the UM Museum is the Robinson collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, which is highly sought after by scholars and often included in publications on the subject. The other selections from this collection are housed in the Harvard and Johns Hopkins museums.
These works, while out of the public eye, are not inaccessible. If a student has an academic interest in a work that is in storage, the museum offers to help them view and study it by recommendation from her or his teacher.
Another way the museum utilizes its collections is through programs for various ages each month.
“One of the real strengths of our museum is the diversity of our collections,” said Emily Dean, curator of education for the museum and historic houses. “In every on-site program, we either explore a specific exhibit or bring out a rarely seen object from our collections storage to encourage object-based learning.”
These programs range in age-group and activity, from 2-year-olds to high school students and from Q-tip recreations of Theora Hamblett’s painting style to guided tours of the exhibitions.
“I love seeing children make new connections with the museum collections and then bring their parents and grandparents in to see the exhibits and share what they have learned,” Dean said. “They become mini-ambassadors for the museum and become more aware of different cultures, art and history.”
Dean said these programs allow the museum to make use of the extensive collections available as well as culturally enriching the community.
“When a community is invested in and involved with its cultural institutions, everyone benefits,” Dean said. “The museum is able to attract new exciting exhibits, classes are able to create more cross-curriculum connections and children, as young as two, begin developing an appreciation of art and world outside of their local town.”
Funke said she believed these opportunities could inspire elementary and high school students alike.
“They’re not going to get that exposure,” Funke said. “Getting that exposure to art is really important. We don’t want anybody to ever feel like this isn’t their museum. It’s exciting to see children that want to come back, that find some love of art, even if it’s small.”
Many pieces both on exhibit and in storage are requested by other museums for exhibition. The museum also rotates pieces from the permanent collection into and out of exhibition, which normally takes three to four months of every year.
“We try to mix it up and do different things,” Funke said. “We know not everybody is going to feel connected to every single exhibit, but we’re always trying to put something different out there, and hopefully, people will like it. ”
Though the works interchange, it is just not possible to display all of what is in storage.
“For the size of the actual exhibit space, it’s what you would call a small university museum,” Funke said.
The amount of relics available is much more on par with a large museum.
“The collections are staggering; this is truly a treasure,” Funke said. “To have everything out, we would need about three more museums.”
Until then, the pieces will remain hidden.
