Michael Reinschmidt has been named the new director of the Arkansas State University Museum in Jonesboro, effective April 11. ASU Provost Alan Utter announced Reinschmidt’s appointment this week and said Reinschmidt was recommended by the search committee to succeed retiring Director Marti Allen.
The A-State Museum is a 40,000-SF facility and is the only active history and natural history museum on a university campus in the state. Accredited by the American Association of Museums since 1973, it operates as a member of the Arkansas State University Heritage Sites. Arkansas State also has the Bradbury Art Museum and the V.C. Kays House on the Jonesboro campus. The Museum will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2023 and continues to serve as a vital educational resource to the university community and northeast Arkansas area schools.
“We are extremely pleased that Dr. Reinschmidt has accepted the offer to take over the stewardship of our A-State Museum,” Utter said. “Our museum has become such an important part of our local community, having an individual with such a rich background in the management and nurturing of significant history and cultural museums was very important in our selection process.”
Reinschmidt joins A-State from dual positions of adjunct faculty in museum studies at the University of Oklahoma- Norman, and health promotional education at OU’s Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. He most recently directed the Kauffman Museum at Kansas’ Bethel College from 2018 to 2020, where he managed the museum’s day-to-day operations, and initiated new exhibit development.
In addition to his background as a museum director, Reinschmidt has global experience in anthropological research, teaching social sciences, and testing museum decolonization trends. He has curated a diverse range of exhibits covering Korean culture, Asian American immigrant experiences, contemporary Native American art of the Southwest, and recently contributed to a show titled, “Vaping – Marketing an Addiction” at the Kauffman Museum in Kansas.
Reinschmidt earned his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, ethnomusicology and American literature at the University of Göttingen in Germany.
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