University School student Sasha Moulton learns to catalog artifacts during a job-shadowing day with Reece Museum staff.
JOHNSON CITY, TN – Recently it's been hard to miss the large construction fence, work vehicles and activity buzzing around the Reece Museum on the campus of East Tennessee State University.
Since May 2011, the museum has been closed to the public as part of a $1.5 million capital maintenance project. In order to protect the museum's 20,000 artifacts, Reece staff spent four months organizing and packing them. Then, with the assistance of ETSU's Facilities Management, staff moved the entire collection, along with their offices, to a temporary site at the university's Valleybrook campus.
This major effort – nominated as "Packing and Moving the Treasures of the Reece Museum" – was recognized by the Tennessee Association of Museums (TAM) when the organization announced its Excellence Awards during its recent annual conference. The Reece Museum earned an Excellence Award in the Exceptional Projects and Events category.
"We are very proud of this accomplishment," said Theresa Burchett, director of the Reece Museum. "It took a great deal of planning, collaboration and physical labor to get the collection moved. It is nice when the other museum professionals across the state recognize your efforts and reward you for it."
The TAM Awards Committee called the Reece Museum's effort "unparalleled in execution and implementation." Committee members were "awed by the time, effort and expertise that went into this endeavor, and felt that the administration, staff and volunteers of the Reece Museum deserve the recognition and honor of receiving an Award of Excellence."
The TAM Excellence Awards recognize, encourage and promote excellence in the activities of the Tennessee museum community in various categories. Awards are based on creativity, originality, resourcefulness, success, support of museum mission statement, and use of staff and volunteers.
Burchett said that Reece Museum renovations are progressing smoothly and the museum is projected to reopen this fall. Updates are available on the museum's website (www.etsu.edu/cass/reece) and its Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Reece-Museum/136880275697).
