CWU Museum Year-end Celebration and a Touching ‘Goodbye’

A year-end retrospective, to celebrate the contributions of those who made the Museum of Culture and Environment (MCE) programming a success, will be held Thursday, June 1 at 5:30 p.m. at Central Washington University’s MCE, located in Dean Hall.

The celebration will include the recently opened Stellar: The Formation of Stars, featuring the research of CWU assistant professor from the physics department Cassandra Fallscheer and her student Jason Arakawa. The MCE will also recognize the participants from The Things We Carry, an exhibition of the objects and stories of community members that began in January and closes on June 11.

The community is invited to attend this free event. Hors d’oeuvres will be provided, and music performed by local jazz musician Ben Macy.

The MCE’s retrospective will also serve as a sendoff to Mark Auslander, the museum’s director since 2011. Auslander has recently accepted a position as the director of the Michigan State University Museum in East Lansing.

Over the last six years, Auslander has brought together diverse community members from CWU and the greater central Washington community. Often this has meant working across disciplines, such as his collaborative work on the exhibition Why Did the Cougar Cross the Road, which detailed the research of biology faculty and students on the impact of Interstate-90 on biodiversity.

Sarah Bair, a CWU alumnus and student intern for Why Did the Cougar Cross the Road says she owes much to Auslander.

“Mark is passionate about what he does,” Bair said. “It’s his passion that inspired me to go into museum studies.”

Auslander played an important role for every MCE exhibition, as collaborator, curator, and/or facilitator. As a professor in the department of Anthropology and Museum Studies, Auslander also teaches courses in these content areas.

Caitlin Anderson, another museum studies student, talks fondly of Auslander.

“He is always there to make sure we meet requirements—just a great, thoughtful professor.”

In his museum studies classes, Auslander emphasizes the necessity for museum professionals to engage with the community in order to increase diversity and inclusivity. This diversity, will bring people from all walks of life to the MCE’s retrospective--to celebrate exhibits and programs they have taken part in, and to bid farewell to Auslander.

For more information, contact museum@cwu.edu or go to www.cwu.edu/museum.

Media contact: Dawn Alford, public affairs coordinator, 509-963-1484, Dawn.Alford@cwu.edu.