The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History will no longer house permanent exhibits at UConn’s building on Hillside Road in Storrs where they have been displayed since 2000, the university announced Wednesday.
Museum staff, which include three employees and the state archeologist, will be relocated to the university’s Office of Public Engagement and continue their work there, said university spokesperson Tom Breen. More outreach is planned for the museum, he added.
According to UConn’s 2014 academic plan, the Office of Public Engagement, with a mission to “provide leadership to connect, coordinate, … and promote outreach programs and engaged scholarship which serve the public good,” seemed a more natural home for the public museum than the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where it was previously based, Breen said.
“Most of the work the museum does is outside that building,” Breen said, adding that there were no funding cuts associated with the change.
The Hillside Road building will be used by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ academic services center, Breen said.
The museum’s collections will still be maintained at the university, and the independent governing board overseeing the museum will continue, as required by law. The museum was created formally by state statute in 1985 but existed informally before then, Breen said.
