[You might find interesting the following recent COMMENTARY from the publisher
of the Columbia Daily Tribune, but please keep in mind that it is, in fact, a
COMMENTARY. For more information on the University of Missouri Museum of Art and
Archaeology, visit http://museum.research.missouri.edu/ . For more information
on the State Historical Society of Missouri (which, by the way, shouldn't be
confused with the Missouri Historical Society), visit
http://www.umsystem.edu/shs/ . – Greg]

Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune: The Tribune's View: Downtown Museums, Excitement
Doubled (12/16)

By Henry J. Waters III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune

Thursday, December 16, 2004

The prospect of moving the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology
downtown is exciting enough. If the State Historical Society of Missouri also
can come, what a boon it would be for the central city area - and for the two
installations.

City leaders first started talking several years ago about developing a downtown
museum district. At the time, renovation of the Blind Boone home was barely out
of the conceptual stage and the Health Adventure Center seemed doubtful. Then
the city got behind Blind Boone, the Health Adventure Center got major help from
the federal government, which turned over the lovely old Federal Building on
Sixth Street, and Boone Hospital Center made a substantial financial gift,
keeping hopes alive.

During those years, City Manager Ray Beck and others had urged MU officials to
move their art and archaeology museum downtown - it was seldom visited in an
inaccessible location on campus. As development plans changed on campus, so did
minds in Jesse Hall. Now MU endorses the idea, to the great joy of downtown
promoters.

During the same years, historical society leaders were planning for their own
badly needed move from the Ellis Library building. MU made available the old
McKee building across Hitt Street, but it is far from an ideal location and
would leave the society on the university campus, where space is dear. Somebody
got the bright idea of taking this facility downtown as well, and the momentum
began.

Everyone now seems sold on the plan, but details now must be worked out - small
considerations such as available space for these two sizeable enterprises and
money.

The Museum of Art and Archaeology had been penciled in for half a block on Fifth
Street between Cherry and Locust Streets - the other half is a city parking
garage - and the first thought is for the historical society to share the same
space, but is it large enough?

One thought is to build a museum building beside the garage and provide access
from every parking floor right into the building. The other, perhaps more
likely, is to find more ground space nearby.

The historical society attracts more traffic than most people realize. It’s a
major research facility and has one of the state’s best collections of fine art,
including work by John Caleb Bingham, Thomas Hart Benton and other premier
Missouri painters. It houses one of the largest newspaper archives in the nation
and other materials dear to researchers. To expand this facility properly will
require a good deal of space.

And, of course, the university will want to do a similar upgrade for the
archaeology museum, outstanding in its own right.

Whatever it takes, let’s do it.

Henry J. Waters III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune

“An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against
it.” - William Bernbach (1911-1982), advertising executive

Copyright © 2004 The Columbia Daily Tribune. All Rights Reserved.

Link to original article:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Dec/20041216Comm001.asp