Regional Museum of World Cultures
Cultural & Archeological Collections
The Spurlock Museum is a globally focused regional resource for school children, families, college students and academics that explains the history of civilizationscivilisations. It is also a preservation facility for cultural artifacts. The building’s “pinwheel” gallery plan is a nearly literal representation of a complex pedagogic program developed by a multidisciplinary committee of faculty members.
The museum annually hosts 12,000 school children and dozens of university classes.
The museum’s campus edge location in a town-gown transition zone fosters positive relations with the surrounding community.
Humankind’s common experiences through time and place provide a reference point for the relativity of cultural history—one culture’s zenith is another’s nadir; isolated areas follow different development patterns. The Spurlock Museum’s plan begins with a central space that presents the oneness of humanity. It provides a theoretical and spatial reference for visitors to explore the history of world cultures divided into nine permanent exhibits.