The James B. and Rosalyn L. Pick Museum of Anthropology located at NIU’s Cole Hall is hosting a new student curated exhibit entitled “Things We Value.”
“Things We Value” went up for display on Tuesday, Sept. 15. and is designed to examine how and why we ascribe value to things.
Some of the topics the exhibit explores include currencies, commodities, trade networks, art markets, and the cost of dying.
The exhibition approaches its subject matter from an economic anthropology perspective using items from across the globe that are part of the museum’s permanent collection.
Additional items were lent to the museum by the Schingoethe Center of Aurora University, NIU community members, and the NIU Bioplastics WASTE Lab.
Numerous countries are represented by items that are now on display, including Mexico, Ghana, Papau New Guinea, Peru, Greece, and Vietnam.
Museum director Dr. Christy DeLair says she’s particularly excited to exhibit a large, wooden crocodile totem from a village along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea.
“This is actually an item that’s always in the gallery,” said DeLair. “But we don’t usually get to see it because it’s behind a box. It’s too big to take down to storage. So, we are really happy to be able to take that box off and show him on a platform and really let him be a part of the exhibit this time.”
Beyond that, Dr. DeLair says she hopes the exhibit provides visitors with a chance to reflect.
“One of our goals out of the exhibit,” she said. “Is that people will think a little more about the things in their lives. That they’ll look closely at them and consider why they consider them valuable. Not take it for granted that something is or is not valuable but look a little more closely at those things.”
NIU graduate students Janine Salapantan and Jacob Harvey are the exhibits main student curators. Each of them were responsible for researching topics, selecting items, designing displays, and writing exhibit labels.
Contributions also came from a number of museum assistants and students enrolled in ANTH 462/562 Collections Management/Museum Methods.
“Things We Value” is now open to the public through Saturday, Dec. 5.
