Multiple members of the campus community contributed to the revival including students India Clizer’24, Beren Engstrom’25, Kiersten Faldet’24, and Sarah Lorenz’24 who worked closely with the museum’s director, Nicolette Meister, and exhibit consultant and Beloit College instructor, Bethany Fleming, to realize the changes. The journey began in the Exhibit Development and Design course taught by Fleming in fall 2022. Re-doing the exhibits was a key goal in the museum’s strategic plan and the students were eager to apply what they learned in the fall to the first floor gallery.

The students worked as a team over the course of the spring 2023 semester to storyboard ideas, research and present design options, and draft text. They also conducted a focus group with Anthropology faculty to better understand and articulate themes central to the department’s identity. Three exhibits–Meet Our Anthropologists, Doing Anthropology: Beloit and Beyond, and Anthropology at Beloit: Past and Present–emerged through this iterative, nearly year-long process.

Meet our Anthropologists and Doing Anthropology help current and prospective students see themselves as Beloiters. Stories highlight experiential learning opportunities available to current students and career trajectories realized by Anthropology graduates. Anthropology at Beloit celebrates the rich history of Beloit’s Anthropology Department and also acknowledges the colonial legacies and power imbalances that made it possible to accumulate vast collections. The exhibit highlights the current focus on contemporary collecting, repatriation efforts, and the work of the student-led Campus Mounds Sustainability and Advocacy Initiative.

Historic Gothic-style window alcoves now feature detailed images of collection items including an Amuzgo huipil from Oaxaca, Mexico, a Guna mola from Panama, and an Ojibwa yarn bag from Wisconsin. As always, the museum is free and open to the public.