Aurora University gallery gets honor for end-of-world exhibit
Beacon-News Staff December 12, 2012 1:12PM
The Schingoethe Center at Aurora University has been honored for its end-of-the-world exhibit, “Unraveling Revelations: Decoding the Prophetic Charts.”
Updated: January 14, 2013 6:39AM
AURORA — The Schingoethe Art Center at Aurora University has been honored for an end-of-the-world exhibit.
The museum this fall received an Award of Excellence in Exhibitions from the Illinois Association of Museums for “Unraveling Revelations: Decoding the Prophetic Charts,” an exhibit which is in its own final days.
The exhibit is curated by students in the AU spring 2012 MST2200 Museum Exhibitions course.
William Miller, a 19th century New England preacher, came to the conclusion that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was imminent and would take place in 1843.
On display in the Schingoethe Art Gallery are eight of the 36 charts from the Aurora University Jenks Memorial Collection of Adventual Materials. The charts were used as visual aids at church services and camp meetings to teach out the prophecies, which Miller believed were about to come to fruition.
“I chose to have students in my Museum Exhibitions course curate this show because it was such a remarkable opportunity for them to work with a unique collection,” said Meg Bero, director of the Schingoethe Center.
“Upon completion of the exhibit it was evident that this project would be a worthy nominee for an award from the Illinois Association of Museums.”
Bero said she wanted to give students the real-world experience of creating an exhibit from beginning to end. She acted as a guide throughout the process and allowed her students to explore the many facets of exhibit production.
“Working on the exhibit was a lot of work. It involved a lot of team work and problem solving, and I think our class did a great job,” said Kayle Rieger, a student in the MST2200 Museum Exhibitions course.
“It is wonderful to be able to say that I helped curate an award-winning exhibit. I’m so proud of our work and thankful to have this experience.”
“Unraveling Revelations: Decoding the Prophetic Charts” is on display through Friday. Visitors can view the collection during normal gallery hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.
