Message from the Director
About the A-State Museum - Learn to stay curious!
Arkansas State University Museum, located on the Arkansas State University Campus in Jonesboro, Arkansas, is an attraction for life-long learners of all ages and walks of life.
Focusing on the natural history and cultural heritage of Northeast Arkansas and the Mississippi River Delta, A-State Museum primarily serves as a learning resource for academic disciplines taught at A-State. The Museum’s interdisciplinary approach to guided tours, cultural programming, collections access, and other educational quests reaches out to all campus departments. We offer customized support for faculty research, innovative departmental curriculum development, and dedicated student learning inspired by a mandate to serve all in common.
Highly regarded by the public, A-State Museum’s acclaimed STEM/STEAM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) foster education as a family value and form the mainstay of our commitment to unbiased K-12 services to this multicultural region. A-State Museum provides safe spaces of casual edutainment for rural, disadvantaged, differently-abled, at-risk, ethnic communities, and other underserved constituencies. We seek to advance the social health of Arkansas and inspire its future leaders to encourage diversity, equity, inclusion, and unrestricted access to life-long learning and higher education.
Museums informally aid societies in staying abreast with in-depth knowledge on how to interpret older layers of art, culture, and history with emerging ones. A-State Museum therefore aspires to present up-to-date learning content helpful for charting our modern lives in rapid confrontations with global warming, demographic change, scientific innovation, artificial intelligence, and social justice provisions that benefit all without delay.
Open and free to the public, A-State Museum offers a remarkable opportunity to inspire university students, delight local residents, and imprint children with our “forever curious” outlook toward the promises and benefits of higher education. By coining learning as a ceaseless endeavor, we anticipate opening minds to envision better futures and, hopefully, make a difference in the lives and future expectations of the entire region.
Those who enjoy the A-State Museum will also be interested in visiting the University’s other on-campus museum, namely the Bradbury Art Museum, and especially Arkansas State University’s four Heritage Sites along the Arkansas Delta:
- Historic Dyess Colony/Johnny Cash Boyhood Home
- Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum
- Southern Tenant Farmers Museum
- Lakeport Plantation
Arkansas State University Museum and the University's Heritage Sites are unique communicators of heritage learning in the Arkansas Delta, offering the highest standards of professional, AAM-accredited museums in the rural mid-South. Plan to visit Arkansas State University museums and heritage sites to become more acquainted with the heritage classics, educational gems, natural beauty, and multicultural traditions in our region!
Arkansas State University Museum Staff
Elisabeth Engel, Interim Director-Curator of Collections
Jill Kary, Curator of Education
Valerie Ponder, Office Manager
