Strategic Plan
The Daura Museum’s strategic plan is updated annually with goals achievable within the academic year. The strategic plan integrally supports the University of Lynchburg’s institutional priorities, advances the museum’s work and reputation in the university museum field, and affirms its commitment to using the visual arts to improve the lives of those in the University of Lynchburg community.
The Daura Museum’s strategic plan provides inspiration and aspiration and drives resources that make the Daura Museum valued by and valuable to the University of Lynchburg. The museum’s guiding principles, goals, and actions articulated in the strategic plan give important focus and shape to the museum’s future in bold, ambitious ways.
Engagement
Assures that the museum strives to be deeply relevant to our diverse on- and off-campus communities. Through commitment to its mission, the Daura Museum strengthens the sense of community within the University of Lynchburg. It revises, refines, and creates new programs and ways of operation that advance educational goals and address societal needs. The Daura Museum is a valued partner in student and faculty success. The museum’s collections, exhibitions, and programs represent and advance scholarship and research. The museum supports diversity initiatives to make the museum a welcome and safe center for the expression of gender, race, and religious differences, and to inspire freedom of expression.
Stewardship
Affirms the value of the museum’s collections and exhibition programs, and directs those activities. Through the acquisition, preservation, research, and presentation of works of art from cultures and periods across the world, the Daura Museum shares and extends our understanding of the human experience and cultural diversity, builds discipline-based and interdisciplinary competencies, and complements, supports, and challenges the academic experience of the University of Lynchburg students.
Vision
Builds on the museum’s strengths to inspire and challenge the academic experience of University of Lynchburg students, to be a resource for artists, scholars, and educators, and to be regarded as a vibrant social and cultural cornerstone of the University that celebrates global creative achievements across time.
As a teaching museum, the Daura Museum of Art creates engaging learning opportunities for the University of Lynchburg students through innovative exhibitions and programs and the intersection of academic disciplines to strengthen students’ visual literacy, analytical writing, critical and creative thinking, and communication skills. The Museum experiments with innovative ways for students to experience exhibitions and programs via storytelling methods, modes of participation, and access strategies to deliver a great on-site experience with art that is relevant and enlightening for all academic disciplines.
Academic Engagement
The Daura Museum of Art is a learning lab that supports, challenges, and complements the academic experience of University of Lynchburg students, reflecting the core values of the University, and deepening our understanding of the human experience and cultural diversity. Although our focus is on the fine arts, exhibitions are interdisciplinary; there are several ways that our varied collections and exhibitions can connect with the many different academic disciplines and departments on campus.
Faculty: How to Incorporate Exhibitions into Your Teaching
Museum visits create a fresh learning environment in which artworks offer new ways to engage all students, even those who rarely participate in classroom discussions. Much like working in a lab, museum visits are hands-on. They require active problem-solving and teamwork. They push students of any discipline to consider the importance of continually asking questions, approaching questions from different angles, and understanding the interconnectivity of everything we do. We can work with you to include Museum class visits and programming into your curriculum which do not require previous familiarity with specific objects.
Our activities follow five models: visual literacy; art as a cultural context; art as a conceptual framework; art as primary text; and art as a creative focal point. Engaging in a series of close-looking activities can improve students’ critical observation and communication skills, conceptual understanding, and application, and help them discover how art can serve as a primary text or shed light on alternative perspectives of course themes.
Opportunities
- Encourage students to visit the Daura Museum.
- Require an unsupervised class visit and assign a reflection paper.
- Exhibition-specific programs are often “Passport” events. Encourage or require that students attend pertinent lectures and write a response to the lecture.
- Host your class at the Museum and provide your walkthrough of pertinent work(s).
- Structure a more guided looking/writing or looking/discussion assignment in the Museum related to specific works on view/exhibition themes.
Protocol
- Visits before or after regular hours should be requested one week in advance.
- Please inform students using the Museum for an assignment to use pencils only; do not write against the walls or on any plexiglass pedestals; leave backpacks at the coat rack.
Exhibition Proposals
- Faculty are encouraged to submit proposals for specific exhibitions, interdisciplinary themes, conceptual themes, and exhibitions in conjunction with seminars, symposia, or special events of any academic discipline, and other University-wide initiatives. The Daura Museum schedules exhibitions approximately one year in advance. All exhibitions for a specific academic year are confirmed before the beginning of the Fall semester.
Facility Usage
- The Daura Museum and the Dillard Lobby Gallery may be used for University-related functions (i.e., lectures, meetings, and receptions) as approved by the Director. There is a nominal fee for use of the Museum after 4 p.m. and on weekends. Learn more about the Daura Museum’s facility usage policy.
Online Collection of Works by Pierre Daura
- Visit our Google site to see our collection of works by Pierre Daura.
Contact
1501 Lakeside Drive | Lynchburg, VA 24501-3113 | (434) 544-8100 | Privacy Policy | Non-discrimination Statement
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© 2025 University of Lynchburg. All Rights Reserved
© 2025 University of Lynchburg. All Rights Reserved
