ASU finalizing plans for Appalachian Cultural Museum items

Appalachian State University will soon finalize plans for items remaining from the former Appalachian Cultural Museum, and nonprofit organizations are invited to submit their own plans for those items.

The museum closed in 2006, and the remaining collections from the museum were placed in storage, according to Neva Specht, chairwoman of the museum collections committee and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“For the past year, the committee, comprised of faculty and staff members, has worked to assess the museum’s remaining objects, to find other university homes for some objects, and to return objects on loan,” Specht said. “The committee is now ready to offer what remains of the collection to nonprofit organizations with similar missions and with the ability to care and preserve the historical objects.”

An open house for the organizations will be held March 23 and 24 to give representatives from the nonprofit groups time to look over the remaining items in the collections and make proposals to have them transferred to their institutions. Individuals will not be able to make personal requests. Whenever feasible, items donated by individuals have been returned to the donor.

Specht said that items remaining in the collection include 19th- and 20th- century tools, Appalachian kitsch, toys, textiles, including quilts and knotted bedspreads, looms, late 19th-century furniture, as well other miscellaneous pieces related to Appalachian culture.

For more information, visit http://www.cas.appstate.edu/deans-office/appalachian-cultural-museum-collection.