University Collections at McCalla (UCM) engages students, faculty, visiting researchers, and public audiences with IU’s world-class collections that span disciplines, time periods, and geography. These include many significant art, cultural, historical, and scientific collections across all nine IU campuses. UCM serves as an accessible hub, allowing collections to be used across disciplinary boundaries so that objects can be connected in new and imaginative ways, including via physical exhibits, digital content, classroom instruction, hands-on learning lab interactions, and public events.
The public galleries feature rotating content curated by University Collections staff and by collections professionals, faculty, and students from across IU. Media kiosks enhance visitor experience and feature audiovisual content from IU collections. Classrooms, the collections lab, and the multipurpose room are available via reservation to faculty, staff, and students who wish to have the opportunity to more deeply engage in collections content.
University Collections at McCalla provides an opportunity for different IU collections to speak to one another in new and different ways, with an emphasis on collaboration across disciplines and a multiplicity of curatorial voices. This interdisciplinary approach is one that few universities—indeed, few collections anywhere—can offer, and it allows IU to give new life to these collections and to enhance its research, teaching, and service mission.
