Present and Past Students to Create Pop-Up Museum During Homecoming

Duquesne University students from the present and the past will collaborate this weekend to create an interactive pop-up museum as part of Homecoming.

Freshman students from Dr. Alima Bucciantini’s history class, with the help of University Archivist Tom White, are putting together a selection of artifacts, photos and stories for the pop-up museum Things and Stories that Make Duquesne. What makes the museum even more interesting is that it’s incomplete.

Alumni returning to the Bluff this weekend for Homecoming are invited to not only check out the museum, but to contribute to it by sharing their own stories, memories and photos that made up their own Duquesne experience.

“This is meant to be as interactive as possible to preserve all the little pieces that make up the complete story of Duquesne,” said Bucciantini, assistant professor of history.

Freshman students in the Materiae learning community in the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts were asked to gather artifacts and stories from around campus to include in the museum.

“I wanted the students to think about the places that have been important to them in their first few months at Duquesne and look for artifacts there,” Bucciantini said. “This is also good exposure to potential jobs that can come from studying history.”

The museum will be open Friday, Oct. 6, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the conference room in the Union Atrium.

Although the museum will feature notable artifacts, such as old sports trophies and an original Duquesne ring, Bucciantini wants people to remember that an object doesn’t have to be of great monetary or historical value to be important. “That’s the point of a popup museum. Each object is important to the people who made the museum.”

For more information about homecoming events, visit www.duq.edu/homecoming.