DeKALB | The NIU Anthropology Museum was first organized in 1965, and has over 10,000 ethnographic objects and specializes in many cultures.

The museum offers many exhibits and collections featuring Southeast Asia, Southwest and Plains Native Americans, Africa, Greece, Mesoamerica and South America.

Ann Wright-Parsons has been the museum’s director since January 2002. Before that, she was a senior scientific assistant in the anthropology department for the Asian Collection at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History for seven and a half years. She decided to come to NIU because she wanted to work with students and also for the reason that NIU’s museum has a strong Southeast Asian collection.

Coming soon…. new exhibits

“The Islam/Southeast Asian exhibit that’s featured in the Stevens Building hallway will be taken down later this week, so be sure to check it out before it gets taken down,” Wright-Parsons said.

In its place, the Anthropology Museum is working on a photo exhibit for the spring. The exhibit features assistant anthropology professor Michael Kolb’s archeological dig work on the island of Sicily, where he has been excavating for the past 10 years. The photos are being put together by archeology graduate student Erin Harney.

Another spring semester exhibit that Wright-Parsons is in the process of working on is an exhibit featuring the research of assistant anthropology professor Sibel Kusimba.

The exhibit will feature Kusimba’s research about the pottery she has found during her field work studies in Kenya. Kusimba also made a video as part of the exhibit, which explains the process of pottery making, and a discussion of mid-range theory.

The Anthropology and Art Museums are teaming up and currently working on featuring an exhibit on Africa, as a way of celebrating Black History Month this coming February.

Sara Phalen, a graduate anthropology student, has been helping with setting up several of the new exhibits that the Anthropology Museum is set to feature in the spring. Phalen has been working on the pieces’ text and other important elements involved in putting these exhibits together.

“I feel that for such a small museum, it has a good exhibit schedule, as well as works well with getting new exhibits set up,” Phalen said.