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Photo: Katolophyromai, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Mathers Museum's collections consist of over 20,000 objects and 10,000 photographs representing cultures from each of the world's inhabited continents. These materials have been collected and curated to serve the Museum's primary mission as a teaching museum within a university setting. The museum's collections strengths include traditional musical instruments, photographs of Native Americans and the Bloomington community, Inupiaq and Yupik Eskimo materials, and Pawnee material culture, among others.
Mathers Museum of World Cultures is a museum of ethnography and cultural history that features exhibitions of traditional and folk arts at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It also offered practicum studies at the university for graduate and undergraduate students. The museum also worked to promote local artists. In 2020, the Mathers Museum officially merged with the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology and was closed for renovations. The combined institutions are now the new Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (IUMAA). Located at 416 North Indiana Avenue. The IUMAA lobby is open and a Grand Opening of the William Gathers gallery is scheduled for October 19, 2024.
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This internationally known rare book library contains more than 400,000 books, more than seven million manuscripts and 100,000 pieces of sheet music. Exhibits vary throughout the year. On permanent exhibit is the Gutenberg Bible (printed before 1456) and John James Audubon's Birds of America prints. Public tours are available every Friday at 2PM or by appointment.
Be sure to see what's playing at this 3,200-seat theatre, home to a wide range of events including touring Broadways productions, (often free) lectures, student events, conferences, church services, university ceremonies, and popular music concerts. While you're there, check out the Hall of Murals, home to the priceless and newly-restored Thomas Hart Benton murals, also a regal setting for wedding ceremonies and intimate receptions. Accessible.
Indiana University Caving Club
The IUCC provides students, faculty, staff, community members, and dedicated visitors the opportunity to crawl around in holes in the ground while practicing cave conservation. Monthly trips offer members of all abilities the opportunity to enjoy a safe caving experience with qualified guides. They even provide a helmet and light for the novice! This is a great way to go spelunking legally in Bloomington as many of the area's caves are under restriction for reasons of safety and conservation. Dues are $10 per calendar year. These dues include use of club gear (helmets and helmet-mounted lights) and the opportunity to go on IUCC-led caving trips. You must be a paid member prior to participating in any club trips.
the MAC
The Musical Arts Center, known as the MAC, is Indiana University and the Jacob's School of Music's premier performance facility. It features acoustical design and technical capabilities that are among the best in the nation. The backstage area occupies more than half of the building and provides state-of-the-art technical space for producing eight fully staged operas a year. The MAC is also home to the School of Music Department of Ballet. The main stage, which is often compared to that of the Metropolitan Opera, has European-style seating for 1,460. Opera and concert goers at the MAC enjoy intermissions in the Hoagy Carmichael Foyer, named for the Indiana native who enjoyed an illustrious career as a composer/songwriter. Concerts are also held in the lobby area.
No matter what your perspective, you can experience art from all angles at the Indiana University Art Museum. From world-renowned architect I.M. Pei's soaring triangular atrium, to galleries filled with extraordinary works of art from all corners of the globe, the IU Art Museum will engage, stimulate, and satisfy your curiosity about the worlds of art. Since its establishment in 1941, the IU Art Museum has grown from a small university teaching collection into one of the foremost university art museums in the country. Today, the IU Art Museum's internationally acclaimed collections, ranging from ancient gold jewelry and African masks to paintings by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso, include over 40,000 objects representing nearly every art-producing culture throughout history. Partially Accessible.
The Museum of Science, Health, & Technology
WonderLab is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to provide opportunities for people of all ages, especially children, to experience the wonder and excitement of science through hands-on exhibits and programs that stimulate curiosity, encourage exploration, and foster lifelong learning. Voted one of Parents Magazine's top 25 Science Museums in the country, WonderLab is a great place to bring kids for an hour or an afternoon. Some favorite exhibits include Grapevine Climber, a dramatic two-story climbing maze, The Bubble-Airium, and the Cosmic Dance, a dance floor composed of five translucent floor panels which briefly light up as cosmic ray particles hit them from outer space. Accessible.