PAINTING THE CRETACEOUS: A VITALIZING, MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECT IN A UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

The Dunn-Seiler Museum of Geosciences on the Mississippi State University (MSU) campus is currently in renovation processes that would make its collections and programs more relevant, interactive, and accessible to its university, professional and public constituents. In the broadening conversation between such, a design plan of more engaging visual exhibits, information graphics and didactics has enabled the initiation of an MSU Undergraduate Research Grant for two Senior Fine Art students in the Art/Painting major who would study museum design, historic mural painting processes and archival materials with the outcome of a permanent mural in the museum.

Art faculty member Brent Funderburk, a W. L. Giles Distinguished Professor of Art Emeritus at MSU, has guided three successful public mural projects in public areas on campus and in the community. Under his direction, research involving Classical mural painting (Greek, Roman, Minoan, etc.), the Mexican Mural Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, American WPA Murals, historic paleo art and illustration, and contemporary science museum design and graphics, MSU Senior Fine Art students Todd M. Rowan and Moesha Wright initiated design proposals and presentations in Spring, 2018. With MSU Geosciences Professor and Museum Director Renee M. Clary and Museum Collections Manager Amy Moe-Hoffman, students discussed, researched and developed a panoramic depiction of a segment of paleo-geologic history of the local Blackbelt Prairie area, involving Upper Cretaceous flora and fauna of marine and land environments at the end of the Mesozoic Era, climaxing with the impact of the Chixulub asteroid; the KPg Boundary being a significant feature of the immediate region.

The “Mississippi Cretaceous Panorama”, due to be completed in November 2018, also identifies recent discovery of a Ceratopsian dinosaur during the Mesozoic, based on a tooth which was recently uncovered in the nearby Owl Creek Formation near New Albany, Mississippi, by George Phillips, Paleontology Curator of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Sciences.

The presentation will focus on the research in art history, studio art, public/museum design and geosciences fields that was critical to the production of a vibrant mural addition to enhance the ongoing meaning and vitality of a university geosciences museum.