Debut display for River Campus' Crisp Museum

After six years of researching, developing and agonizing over details, museum director Dr. Stanley Grand will be able to step back.

Grand's debut of the Crisp Museum, featuring archaeology, regional history and exhibit space for fine art, is Saturday. Dr. John Hainsworth, the owner of the Hainsworth Collection, will speak at the museum's grand opening at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The Hainsworth Collection is the first traveling exhibit on display.

The event is coordinated with the grand opening of Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus, the new home to the school's program of visual and performing arts. The museum is off the lobby of the Bedell Performance Hall.

"I've been here since 2000. The reason I came was to build this. Now it's done. It's this dream that has come to reality," Grand said.

Workers scurried Tuesday to finish encasing artifacts, making sure interactive displays functioned and installing a projector. The projector is for a 36-seat theater near the entry of the museum. Visitors can watch a 17-minute film discussing the theme of the permanent collection, that Southeast Missouri is a crossroads in terms of geography, transportation, education, history and religion. The video features members of the community, including history professor Dr. Bonnie Stepenoff and businessman Earl Norman.

Jim Phillips held a display window as Kristen Lueders gave it one last cleaning Tuesday before installing it in the Crisp Museum at the River Campus. (Kit Doyle)

"We wanted to have an argument, a thesis ... and we wanted a lot of the wow factor," Grand said.

The museum is a big step up from the former location in Memorial Hall. It is bigger, more interactive and more cohesive, Grand said.

Following the video, visitors can flow into the home of the permanent collection, a 4,000-square-foot open hall. Various sections showcase the crossroads theme.

In the geography section, visitors learn that the region is unique where the inland highlands meet the coastal plains. An interactive topographical map allows visitors to learn about stretches of the Mississippi River.

In the empirical section, the varied history of influence is stressed. French furs are displayed, American Indian stories about demands to cede their lands are told, and Spanish artifacts such as a conquistador helmet are highlighted.

Amy Roadarmel scrutinized Francis Luis Mora's "Two Fishermen" on Tuesday for a condition report before it was hung with the Hainsworth Collection in the Crisp Museum at the River Campus.

Steamboat and railroad models round out an area on transportation, while the Civil War is the focus of a history section. Other sections are education, agriculture and ceramics. A final display features a life-size Mississippian hut.

"There is a story for each of the three figures in the display," Grand said.

Another highlight of the museum is its changing exhibit room, about 2,000 square feet, which will allow for a range of motifs.

"We could have sculpture, video, abstract paintings or photographs. We want to mix it up," Grand said.

Fifty-three paintings making up the Hainsworth traveling collection still need to be hung before Saturday. Many of the paintings have an impressionism style and focus on landscape or figures. The paintings date from the mid-1800s to the 1930s.

One of Grand's favorite paintings is "Niagara Falls with Bridge and Rainbow" by John Worthington Mansfield. The perspective makes viewers feel they are standing in the water, allowing them to feel the "raw power and majesty" of America's natural resources. But a factory smokestack stands in the distance, and a steel bridge is visible.

"It is an iconic image of nature and the encroaching march of industrialization. It is a snapshot of change," Grand said.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123