In 2018, the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art undertook a strategic planning process – the first in the museum’s history. Supported by a capacity building grant from Quad City Arts, it was written by Dr. Claire Kovacs (director, ATMA) with support from Tom Shapiro of Cultural Strategy Partners. It was informed by input from or in consultation with over 30 individuals, including 7 academic departments, campus administration, and regional peers.
The purpose of the plan is to formalize ATMA’s ambitions and role on campus and provide opportunities for further co-curricular engagement with the visual arts as a vital part of the liberal arts experience.
We rethought our mission + values statements:
ATMA Mission Statement
The Augustana Teaching Museum of Art supports the mission, purpose, and goals of Augustana College by placing student learning and experience at its heart. It utilizes the visual arts as a catalyst to explore contemporary issues and to foster interdisciplinary inquiry. We are a space for a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, and a site of dynamic community engagement.
ATMA Values Statement
The Augustana Teaching Museum of Art values a liberal arts spirit of inquiry, intellectual rigor, critical dialogue, a multiplicity of perspectives, and academic freedom.
As well as laid out a framework for the next three years:
Executive Summary
The Augustana Teaching Museum of Art (ATMA) is a site for visual art and integrated learning in support of Augustana College’s mission. It is a space for building 21st century skills of visual literacy, emotional intelligence and cultural empathy, as well as pre-professional career experience in the visual arts, public history, and museum administration. The Museum catalyzes robust, inter-disciplinary conversations about timely and timeless ideas, including diversity, accessibility, equity, and community engagement, thus contributing to Augustana Student Learning Outcomes of interpersonal maturity and intrapersonal conviction.
We envision ATMA as an essential campus gathering place where our communities engage with each other and grapple with meaningful ideas through the lens of the visual arts. Toward this end, ATMA sets four objectives for the next three years:
1. Place integrative learning and individual student achievement centered on the visual arts at the core of ATMA’s activities.
2. Actively promote campus conversation, learning, and research through provocative, open-minded (re)consideration of both accepted truths and unfamiliar ideas through the visual arts.
3. Assess, deploy, and steward the Museum’s art collections.
4. Optimize the current facilities to the extent our means provide.
Read the entire plan here.