Mission and Vision

The Daura Museum of Art is a teaching museum that enhances the University of Lynchburg’s academic mission, transforms learning through encounters with works of art, advances creative collaboration with all fields of study, and furthers the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts and cultural heritage for all University of Lynchburg constituents.

Guiding Principles

• The Daura Museum believes that appreciating the visual arts across time and cultures is one of the most effective ways to become culturally aware global citizens and build a better world.
• The Daura Museum enhances the academic mission of the University of Lynchburg across all disciplines by offering opportunities to challenge assumptions, question critically, reason effectively, communicate clearly, act creatively, and live ethically.
• The Daura Museum models inclusion through stimulating, innovative, compelling programs and exhibitions that enhance the academic curriculum.
• The Daura Museum is committed to ensuring that diversity, equity, and inclusion are apparent through a climate where all students, faculty, and staff feel welcomed and are treated equitably and with respect.
• The Daura Museum is a learning lab where innovation occurs at the intersection of disciplines.
• The Daura Museum fosters the transformative power of art by being a place of reflection, enjoyment, and dialogue.
• The Daura Museum finds collaborative opportunities on- and off-campus that make the museum central to learning and the building of diverse audiences.

Statement of Diversity and Inclusion

Academic museums and galleries across the U.S. are dedicated to teaching our many audiences about global heritage — past and present, individual and collective — not only to enhance educational and enrichment opportunities in the communities we serve but also to foster mutual respect and understanding well beyond the borders of our localities. In furtherance of this commitment, we regularly welcome curators, faculty, students, and collectors from around the world who support our mission and share their creative practices and experiences with us.

Association of Academic Museums & Galleries, February 2017

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, be a resource for artists, scholars, and educators, and be regarded as a vibrant social and cultural cornerstone of the University that celebrates global creative achievements across time.