EAST LANSING, Mich. – Tapped for 25-plus years of experience in museum management and research, Australian native Gary Morgan has been appointed director of the Michigan State University Museum.
“I have a great respect for what American museums have been achieving in innovative advances on public learning,” said Morgan, who will start his job Sept. 1. “Michigan State University Museum can be right at the center of that, with its range of disciplines, its emphasis on scholarship and diverse education programs and its role within and outside of the university.”
The MSU Museum has faculty, curators and specialists who develop research, exhibitions and educational programs in partnership with the colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arts and Letters, Natural Science and Social Science. It also partners with the Residential College in Arts and Humanities, International Studies and Programs and other units across MSU.
Morgan previously served as executive director of the Western Australian Museum in Perth, including the Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle History Museum and other public sites across that state.
In addition, he has extensive international experience, including recent work as a heritage advisor and project manager for the Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art in Mua, Malawi, Africa, and as a strategic planner for the Sharjah Museums Department in the United Arab Emirates. He currently is wrapping up his work as a senior advisor to some new museum projects in the Arabian Gulf region.
“Gary has broad, extensive experience with museums in Australia, the Middle East and Africa, and his interdisciplinary research provides an excellent fit with the diverse interests of our faculty,” said Hiram Fitzgerald, associate provost for University Outreach and Engagement. “We look forward to introducing Dr. Morgan to the university community, as well as our museum collaborators and supporters regionally, nationally and internationally.”
Morgan, who holds a doctorate in zoology from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, succeeds C. Kurt Dewhurst, who led the museum for 27 years. Dewhurst was recently appointed director of arts and cultural initiatives for University Outreach and Engagement. But he will maintain curatorial duties in folk life and cultural heritage at the museum, as well as teach in the Museum Studies Program in the College of Arts and Letters.
Julie Avery, MSU Museum curator of rural life and a long-time administrator, will serve as acting director from July 1 to Sept.1.
To learn more about the MSU Museum, visit http://museum.msu.edu.
[Editor’s Note: Morgan is available to speak to media, noting there is a 12-hour time difference between Michigan and Western Australia. Please contact Lora Helou or Kristen Parker with interview requests.]
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The MSU Museum, accredited by the American Association of Museums, collects, preserves, studies and interprets cultural artifacts and natural history specimens, with more than 1 million collections in four buildings on the MSU campus. Founded in 1857, the museum is committed to education, exhibitions and research and the building and stewardship of collections that focus on Michigan and its relationship to the Great Lakes and the world beyond.
The museum is administered through MSU’s Office of the Provost for University Outreach and Engagement, which fosters MSU’s land grant mission by connecting university knowledge with community knowledge in mutually beneficial ways. Outreach and Engagement provides resources to assist academic departments, centers, institutes and MSU Extension on priority issues of concern to society by encouraging, supporting and collaborating with MSU faculty and academic staff to generate, apply, transmit and preserve knowledge.