Plans were downsized due to recession, state budget cuts

MISSOURI INNOVATION PARK

The University of Missouri is known as a cutting-edge research campus. But its distance from major metropolitan areas inhibits some projects from connecting with businesses and organizations.

Steve Wyatt, vice provost for economic development, has been working with MU officials, the city of Blue Springs in metropolitan Kansas City and the Blue Springs Economic Development Corp. to change that.

MU’s presence in the region is not about competing with Kansas City higher education institutions for contracts and students. “It’s about Mizzou contributing and collaborating in the region.”

—Steve Wyatt, vice provost for economic development

About five years ago, several factors converged regarding MU’s presence in the greater Kansas City area, which has a population of 1.5 million.

First, Mizzou saw the need to increase visibility of its research, teaching, extension and economic development offerings in urban areas. “We have a lot of really smart people here who do a lot of research that impacts society,” Wyatt said. “The problem is that most people and businesses are in the metropolitan areas. If we are really going to bridge the gap for contract research and education collaborations, we need to be there at the table.”

Second, officials of Blue Springs, population 55,000, wanted to build a research park anchored by a research university. And third, Kansas City leaders were interested in increasing Mizzou’s research in the area, but the university’s distance was inhibiting collaboration.

The Mizzou Center

Talks in 2007 went well and MU began planning for a presence in the Blue Springs’ Missouri Innovation Park, a work in

progress southeast of Interstate 70 and Adams Dairy Parkway. Planners say the science and technology park, of which Blue Springs is the main investor, will cover 250 acres, host dozens of companies and employ about 3,500 people.

In anticipation, the MU Jackson County MU Extension Office relocated to downtown Blue Springs to be close to the proposed Mizzou Center location. The plan was to locate the office in the future center.

But months later, Mizzou’s role changed due to the nation’s economic downturn, Wyatt said. Rather than build and buy, MU planned to lease a floor in a Blue Springs complex.

In March 2010, the Mizzou Center opened on the first floor of the Heartland Financial Building near the park. The center has 10,000 square feet for research, education and outreach programs offered by MU’s colleges of education, human environmental sciences and veterinary medicine, and by MU extension. Also offered are master’s programs in library science and social work. The center plans to offer research, education and economic development programs in the future.

Last November, the letter of intent between the city, the Economic Development Corp. and Mizzou was changed to reflect the new circumstances. MU will still be the park’s anchor university tenant, but the new agreement has Blue Springs financing and owning the research building and MU leasing it.

The three entities are working together to hammer out a lease agreement and identify and select a building developer, who will be chosen before March 1, Wyatt said.

Once a consensus is reached, the design phase of the building project will begin.

Open space, open minds

But what kind of research and programs will be there?

Wyatt has been meeting with MU deans to pick their brains about how they would use the space, but he would not offer details of ideas because the process is not finalized. “We’ve had very good meetings with all parts of the campus, and their

ideas are really exciting,” Wyatt said.

But some ideas, while good on paper, may not be economically feasible. “We need a model to make this sustainable,” Wyatt said.

Some of the best research centers, including Apple’s in

Silicon Valley that was partly designed by the late Steve Jobs, allow open space where great minds of different departments can meet casually or accidentally to exchange ideas. The Missouri Innovation Park developers understand this and have built into its design eateries and recreational activities, including a golf course, where researchers can relax and mingle. 

Wyatt envisions something similar at the new building, tentatively called the Mizzou Center. “We’d like a very open construction, transparent, flexible where there is a lot of collaboration,” he said.

Collaboration, however, doesn’t end with park scientists and researchers. Wyatt said it is already happening among

MU, the University of Missouri in Kansas City and other metro institutions. MU and UMKC, for example, jointly hired a person to market the technology of both universities in the greater Kansas City area.

MU’s presence in the region is not about competing with Kansas City higher education institutions for contracts and students, Wyatt said. “They have strengths and we have strengths,” he said. “This is about filling the gaps, not duplicating services. It’s about Mizzou contributing and collaborating in the region.”

Phase I of the Missouri Innovation Park will develop 63 acres, including constructing the some 60,000-square-foot building anchored by Mizzou. Building construction is planned to begin in September, and its opening is expected in spring 2014.

Journalism and filmmaking, a sometimes contentious pairing

OVERLAPPING MEDIA

Lights! Camera! Journalism?

To prepare movie buffs for the ninth annual True/False Film Fest, MU will host a three-day conference Feb. 29 through March 2 titled “Based on a True Story: Intersections of Documentary Film and Journalism” at the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

The conference will highlight the convergence of film and journalism into documentary. A diverse group of filmmakers, film critics, journalists and academics will discuss objectivity in film, grassroots filmmaking, fair use and copyright law, documentary style, documentary journalism and future projects.

“Rather than host a strictly scholarly conference, with ‘Based on a Story,’ we hope to engage the community in a dynamic conversation with filmmakers, critics and academics,” said Stephanie Craft, chair of journalism studies.

“We aim to explore these issues in a way that we can all relate to them,” she said.

Film and print

Craft and Brad Prager, associate professor of German and an active member of the Program in Film Studies, organized the event to incorporate multiple disciplines and nonacademic professionals.

Because of their efforts, the conference received a $20,000 grant from Mizzou Advantage, as part of its Media of the Future initiative, to supplement funding. Although intended as a one-time event, Craft and Prager said the conference will foster relations among departments and the community, and Craft said it would probably lead to the creation of a documentary film class.

Local filmmaker Chad Freidrichs, a film instructor at Stephens College, will give a presentation on the art of the documentary at a round-table discussion. His documentary, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, explores the rise and fall of urban housing in America and debunks several myths surrounding the infamous case of St. Louis’ Pruitt-Igoe housing complex.

The film has received many awards, including one for best use of archival footage from the International Documentary Association, and awards for best feature documentary from the Oxford Film Festival and Kansas City Film Fest.

“One thing that documentaries are good at is putting a big story on screen,” Freidrichs said. The story could be covered in a journalism article, he said, “but that doesn’t give you the same experience.”

Besides the experience, there are other differences between documentaries and traditional print journalism. Some of the differences can create tension when they overlap.

Craft said the success of the documentary in recent years has attracted journalists who are looking at multimedia to weave narratives. But the documentaries must be visually appealing and have a strong narrative. This can cause filmmaker journalists to lose sight of the need to vet information, even if it makes the documentary less interesting, Craft said.

Some documentaries also come with a point of view toward their subjects, while journalism typically is about being fair and keeping an objective distance from subjects.

What’s more, journalists are taught to keep themselves out of the story, while documentarians often become subjects in their movies. Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock became celebrities through their documentary. Lynn True and Nelson Walker star in their film Summer Pasture, about their living with Tibetan nomads for a summer; True and Walker will be at the conference.

“Documentary filmmakers are liberated in a certain way,” Prager said. “Some take that liberation and run with it. Documentary filmmakers get so deep in their subjects that they can’t separate themselves.”

But audiences can get upset when filmmakers become too much a part of the story, Freidrichs said.

This debate, and many others, will keep the conversation going at the conference.

“I hope that people come away with an expanded idea of where there’s overlap between documentary and journalism and what those implications are,” Craft said.

Plenty of experts

Besides Freidrichs, there is a wealth of other interesting filmmakers taking part in the conference.

Peter Nicks, who won an Emmy in 1999 for Blame Somebody Else, will be part of an in-depth question-and-answer discussion about his new project, The Waiting Room. Nicks has worked as a staff producer for ABC News and produced the PBS documentary Life 360.

Jason Spingarn-Koff, a video journalist for The New York Times, is director of Life 2.0, which was part of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. He’s worked in the past on documentary projects with PBS, the BBC, MSNBC, Time.com and Wired News.

Film critics Nathan Rabin of  The A.V. Club, Bertsy Sharkley of The Los Angeles Times, Karina Longworth of LA Weekly and Tom Roston of PBS’ Doc Soup Blog will be on hand to offer their unique perspectives. Also scheduled to participate are Patricia Audferheide, professor of communication studies at American University, and Michael Renov, professor and vice dean of academic affairs at the University of Southern California.

— Trevor Eischen

Site important for campus communicators

MIZZOU IDENTITY STANDARDS

A new website is a one-stop shop for the university brand.

Mizzou Identity Standards, at identity.missouri.edu, is a smorgasbord of useful information on MU policies, guidelines and best practices, previously housed on a variety of websites, which made it difficult for faculty and staff to find.

Launched Feb. 15, the site includes information about MU logo usage, graphic identity standards, editorial style, website design policies, pride point messagess and more.

It also features “Mizzou Measures Up,” a new list of accountability measures, as well as an online image library, downloadable coloring pages and games for kids.

“We are working toward a consistent representation of MU’s brand to showcase our strengths, advance our goals and enhance our image,” said Chris Koukola, assistant to the chancellor for University Affairs.

The site will come in handy for campus leaders and communicators, said Lori Croy, director of Web Communications. “This is a good tool for schools and colleges communicators to use when marketing the institution,” she said.

Mizzou Identity Standards is easy to use. Visitors simply click on tabs labeled with names like “Pride Points,” “Logos & Design,” “Stationery,” “Email” and “Policies & Guidelines.” Each tab has an extensive drop-down menu where visitors can explore the topic in greater detail. Croy said people are most curious so far about “Logos & Design,” which includes everything you ever wanted to know about the logo but were afraid to ask. The Publications Office sets up logo treatments that meet the identity standards, a service that is free of charge.  

Visitors can download university logos and request a logo be designed for their department, school or college.

The site has plenty of visual aides and can be read easily on smartphones, iPads and tablets because of its responsive design, which re-sizes itself depending on what electronic unit it’s viewed on, Croy said.

“This is something we believe is important to the future of how we design websites,” she said.

At the launch, Koukola said that in recent years branding has become more important at the university, but there remains a lot of misunderstanding about it. “Branding is really about representing our quality, role and spirit to the people we serve and whose support we seek,” she said.  “We are AAU; we are land-grant; we are the flagship; we are the Tigers; we are One Mizzou.”

To give Web Communications feedback on the site, email webcom@missouri.edu.

* Mizzou Weekly is published by Publications and Alumni Communication, a department of University Affairs.

UM still faces $47.1 million shortfall

BOARD OF CURATORS

The University of Missouri Board of Curators voted Monday to raise tuition for in-state undergraduates to the rate of inflation of 3 percent.

Among the reasons curators gave for the relatively low increase — at one point a

6.5 percent increase was on the table — was so Missouri residents can better afford higher education, and because of Gov. Jay Nixon’s recommendation earlier this month of restoring $40 million in public funding for state higher education for fiscal year 2013.

In January, Nixon’s budget agenda included a 12.5 percent cut to state higher education funds. The restoration, due to a settlement involving the nation’s five largest mortgage banks, would lower the overall cut to about 8 percent.

Since the in-state tuition increase is within the Consumer Price Index of 3 percent, the university will not have to seek a tuition waiver from the commissioner of the Department of Higher Education, per Senate Bill 389.

Despite the governor’s proposed reduction in state appropriations for higher education and the

3 percent tuition increase, UM System President Tim Wolfe said the university still faces a $47.1 million budget gap.

“We recognize that we can no longer rely on the state to be a primary funding source for higher education,” Wolfe said. “As a result, we continue to work diligently to pursue public-private partnerships, research and patenting opportunities that can add even more licensing income to our bottom line, as well as other sources of outside revenue.”

Wolfe said that the state cut to public colleges and universities may mean layoffs and program eliminations within the UM System.

While the state’s revenue crunch is understood, Wolfe said, there remains “difficult budget decisions” for the university to make.

Organizers hope program encourages children to read more

READING IN CLASSROOMS

Mizzou’s Association for Black Graduate and Professional Students is promoting literacy and ethnic pride during February, Black History Month, through its second annual reading program.

Association members have kicked off the initiative by reading to children in their classrooms.

Anthony James, association president and a graduate student in human development and family studies, hopes the effort will increase interest in reading among children and increase their academic achievements.

“This program truly is scholarship in action and a real way that our members can give back to the community,” James said.

“From research, we know the importance of reading. Children who read well typically do better in school than those who do not,” he continued. “If we can lend some of our time, especially during the month that we celebrate African-American heritage, to inspire kids to read more, then it is well worth the time.”

 James said the association wants to contribute by providing children of all color, creeds and backgrounds with tangible examples of success.

“We hope that our interactions with the students can inspire them in a way that they too want to pursue higher education in a field of their choice,” James said.

The program is taking place in eight Columbia elementary schools. The student volunteers will read the books to the children, and the children will have continued access to copies of the books at the schools’ libraries.

James hopes that the program will lead to other groups taking an active role in the community to help children succeed.

Photoacoustic device finds cancer cells before they become tumors

FIGHTING CANCER

Early detection of melanoma is critical because the skin cancer tends to spread rapidly throughout the body.  Now, University of Missouri researchers are one step closer to melanoma cancer detection at the cellular level, long before tumors have a chance to form.

Commercial production of a device that measures melanoma using photoacoustics, or laser-induced ultrasound, will soon be available to scientists and academia for cancer studies. The commercial device also will be tested in clinical trials to provide the data required to obtain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for early diagnosis of metastatic melanoma and other cancers.

Researcher John Viator said the photoacoustic device and method would provide an earlier diagnosis for aggressive melanoma cancers.

“Using a small blood sample, our device and method will provide an earlier diagnosis for aggressive melanoma cancers,” said Viator, associate professor of biological engineering at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and associate professor of biomedical engineering and dermatology in the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center.

“We compare the detection method to watching an eight-lane highway full of white compact cars,” he said. “In our tests, the cancer cells look like a black 18-wheeler.”

Viator’s photoacoustic device emits laser light into a blood sample, and melanin within the cancer cells absorbs the light. Those cancer cells then expand as the lasers rapidly heat and then cool the cancer cells, making them prominent to researchers. The device also would capture the expanded cells, identifying the form of cancer the physicians are fighting and the best treatment method.

Viator recently signed a commercialization license to begin offering the device and method to scientists and academia for research. His department is preparing studies for FDA approval for clinical use, which is expected to take approximately two to three years. The final device is expected to look similar to a desktop printer.

Currently, physicians use CT or MRI scans for melanoma cancer detection, costing thousands of dollars. The cost to use the photoacoustic device in a hospital would be only a few hundred dollars, Viator said.

“We are attempting to provide a faster and cheaper screening method, which is ultimately better for the patient and the physician,” he said.

“There are several melanoma drugs on the horizon,” Viator said. “Combined with the new photoacoustic detection method, physicians will be able to use targeted therapies and personalized treatments, changing the medical management of this aggressive cancer.

“Plus, if the test is as accurate as we believe it will be,” he said, “our device could be used as a standard screening in targeted populations.”

The book traces changing attitudes toward sexual relations over the decades

THE CHANGING FACE OF SEX

Wayne Anderson was born at the beginning of the Great Depression.

It was a time in America when few women worked outside the home; pregnant teachers were not allowed in the classroom; offering birth control information was illegal; condoms had to be labeled “for prevention of disease only”; homosexuals were considered criminals, mentally ill or both; adultery was the only ground for divorce in most states; and sex education was virtually nonexistent.

Major changes did not take place until the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Anderson, professor emeritus of psychology, writes about these changes and his 42 years of research and experiences teaching human sexuality at Mizzou in his latest book, The Changing Face of Sex, available at most book stores.

Anderson taught full time at Mizzou from 1963 until he retired in 1995. Since then, he’s taught part time in the Honors College.

The book took about a month to put together. But in another way, Anderson said, he had been working on it for half of a century.

Some of the book material came from articles Anderson published in journals, interviews and discussions with Mizzou students since 1969.

He particularly mined discussions from an undergraduate class he teaches called Understanding Human Sexuality. In the course, he asked students to turn in weekly written reports about their observations of sex in their environment. Their reflections are based on various sources such as movies, television, books, friends, fellow students and their own experiences.

“What we found is that there has been a tremendous change since 1968 in the sexual behavior of people and in the attitudes toward sexual behavior,” Anderson said.

“Several chapters in this book are based on the reports I have received from students over the years about their observations,” he said, “as well as a chapter on their fantasies.”

Anderson also steps back in time, tracing behaviors and attitudes in the sexually conservative decades before the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Other topics covered include the need for sex education, the evolution of sexually transmitted diseases, behavioral differences between men and women, the brain chemistry of love, marriage and divorce, dual-career couples, monogamy, pregnancy, homosexuality and rape.

Dean Andersen, an MU health educator, said the dialogue Anderson creates in the book helps dispel myths and stereotypes, and helps individuals express their sexuality in healthy ways.

“His book provides the reader with an interesting and insightful frontline glimpse into the amazing changes in social attitudes toward sex, sexuality and sex-roles that have occurred in the past century,” Andersen said.

 

Anderson keeps busy in retirement

Since retiring in 1995 from MU, Wayne Anderson has been busy writing columns, articles and books.
He writes a travel column for the Columbia Daily Tribune. A collection of his articles was published in the book Offbeat Travel. He also has written articles on his work training therapists, teachers and nurses in war-torn countries to deal with traumatized children.
Anderson has dabbled in novels as well. In 2010 he published Christina’s Saga: From Norway to Dakota Territory, which is loosely based on his grandmother who emigrated from Europe to the United States.
Anderson’s current project is a science fiction novel.
“I’m keeping quite busy for an old man,” he said.

Library has some 90,000 works

MU LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Among the manuscripts stored in the MU Libraries Special Collections is one that may be worth more than $1 million.

Charlotte Brontë wrote The Secret and Lily Hart, which are novels bound as one, when she was about 17 years old. The manuscript is signed by Brontë and dated Nov. 27, 1833.

The university is one of the few owners of an original manuscript by Brontë, a heralded 19th-century English writer. Last December, an unpublished manuscript by a young Brontë sold at auction to a French museum for $1 million and some change.

“I don’t think ours would be any less valuable … particularly since our manuscript consists of two novels,” said Michael Holland, director of MU Special Collections and Rare Books, which houses about 90,000 works.

Miniature writing

Brontë’s early manuscripts are important because they offer clues about the characters and stories of her adult novels.

The Secret, a dramatic story with dark twisted plots, reflects the Gothic style of Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, considered a literary masterpiece.

William Holtz, professor emeritus of English, wrote in his book Two Tales by Charlotte Brontë, that Douro, the handsome hero of The Secret, re-emerged as Rochester in Jane Eyre.

In Lily Hart, Holtz found what he called Brontë’s “impulse of genius” and a “sense of the long preparation out of which Jane Eyre grew.”

The novels are tough reading, though. Brontë’s spelling was creative, and she didn’t always follow rules of capitalization and punctuation.

They also are hard on the eyes. Even with a magnifying glass, it’s difficult to make out the tiny hand-written script of The Secret and Lily Hart.

Why Brontë and her siblings wrote so small remains a mystery.

Some literary researchers say they were trying to hide their writings from a stern religious aunt, who cared for the children after their mother died. Others say the children were writing in miniature to be closer to scale of a regiment of toy soldiers that inspired some of their stories. It could also be put down simply to youthful fun.

Manuscript comes to  MU

After Brontë’s death in 1855, her husband, the Rev. Arthur Nicholls, inherited most of her manuscripts and letters. Although he told a broker he intended to burn them, he transcribed some and sold many.

Author Elizabeth Gaskell was the first to document The Secret by reproducing its first page in her 1857 biography of Brontë.

Researchers conjecture the two-novel manuscript was purchased by a broker in 1895 and passed to a collector. In 1915 it was sold at auction in New York and was untraceable for decades.

The manuscript resurfaced when Missouri Congressman James W. Symington, son of Sen. Stuart Symington and Evelyn Wadsworth Symington, discovered it among his mother’s possessions after her death in 1973, Holland said. It is believed she had purchased the work in Britain.

Stuart Symington and his son gave the manuscript to MU Libraries in 1975.

Library welcomes visitors

The 19,000 words in The Secret and Lily Hart cover four sheets of notepaper the color of today’s grocery bags. The paper is folded into 16 small pages measuring 4 1/2 inches by 3 5/8 inches.

When MU acquired it, the manuscript was encased in a tri-fold leather folder that fit into a brown leather slipcase. The folder was red, a horror for preservationists.

“It can bleed or transfer to the manuscript,” said Special Collections librarian Kelli Hansen.

Conservationists separated the pages and placed each in Mylar, an inert plastic considered safe for preserving paper.

The encapsulated manuscript is stored in an acid-free cardboard box inside a humidity- and temperature-controlled vault on the fourth floor of Ellis Library, home of Special Collections. Alarms will sound if the humidity drops below 55 percent or the temperature strays from 68 degrees.

Visitors are welcome to see it. But to turn its plastic-encased pages, they will have to present a photo ID and be viewed on a security camera.

“We are very glad to share our resources. It’s the main part of our work,” said Alla Barabtarlo, head of Special Collections and Rare Books.

— Nancy Moen

 

 

Name:  Claudia Jones-Lewis   

Work place:  School of Social Work

Title:  Fiscal officer

Years at MU:  Five

Hometown:  Columbia

Favorite music:  Jazz and R&B

Favorite sport:  Softball

Favorite vacation spot:  Las Vegas

Family:  Married with one daughter

Undergraduate/graduate education:  BSBA (finance and banking) in 1993 from Mizzou

---

What are your current job duties?

Manage financial budgets, payroll and grant supervision.

Why are you passionate about your job?

I like working with numbers and being able to explain it to others so they understand.

What is your favorite part about working at Mizzou?

The great health benefits and the chance to work with some really good people.      

If you weren’t doing this for a living, what would your dream job be?

 Not sure, still working on what I want to be when I grow up (smile).

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The ability to work with a team or work alone and to prioritize tasks in my own way.

How do you spend your time away from the university?

With family activities and keeping my daughter involved in various activities (dance, gymnastics, T-ball, soccer, after-school programs).

What do you consider the most rewarding aspects of your job? 

Making my department financially sound.

What is most demanding/challenging?

Getting everyone to use correct forms and follow procedure.

How do you meet these challenges?

I try to find better ways to inform them or make suggestions on where to keep my emails and attachments.

What co-workers say about Jones-Lewis:

“It amazes me how she can always take any circumstance and relate it back to Time + Value = Money. Claudia is exceptionally gifted in taking an idea and calculating the time spent adding in the value to compute the money advantage that the school has obtained. She definitely knows how to work smart in order to get the job done accurately.  Claudia is one of the best fiscal officers that the School of Social Work has had, and we are fortunate to have someone of her caliber in the position.” — Kathleen Claxton-Rogers, academic evaluator, School of Social Work.

Chancellor Brady Deaton is scheduled to receive an honorary degree today from Khon Kaen University in Thailand, one of Mizzou’s partner institutions. Khon Kaen officials will present the degree at 1 p.m. in the Great Room of the Reynolds Alumni Center.

Deaton will be recognize for his career in public service, which began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand.

Everyone is invited.

An MU law professor and senior fellow of the School of Law’s nationally recognized dispute resolution center won last month the Best Short Article Award from the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.

Two years ago, S.I. Strong was awarded Best Professional Article from the institute.

Strong’s winning article this year compared collective shareholder arbitration in Germany with class arbitration in the United States. The article was published in ASA Bulletin, the journal of the Swiss Arbitration Association.

At the New York ceremony, Strong said: “The evening’s events were truly a collection of the best and brightest minds in the field of dispute resolution, and the diversity of the recipients and the projects honored shows how important dispute resolution is not only to business, but also to individuals on the street.”

This spring, Strong travels to the Netherlands for five-month fellowships at the Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences.

Know someone who’s helped people outside America learn more about MU?

The university’s Council on International Initiatives and Office of the Vice Provost for International Programs are seeking nominations from faculty, staff and students for this year’s International Engagement Awards.

Nomination materials, including recommendation letters, should be submitted to Rebecca O’Neal’s email at onealr@missouri.edu.

Deadline is 5 p.m. March 1.

The Women’s Leadership Conference will take place 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. March 10 from the Missouri United Methodist Church Conference Center, 204 S. Ninth St.

Officials at MU, Columbia College and Stephens College have collaborated to help create a program that addresses women’s issues involving leadership, academics, careers and personal life. The conference is a chance for faculty, staff and students from different learning institutions to network with one another and with community leaders.

Cost is $15 per person. For more information, contact Amanda Wheeler at ajw5f9@mail.missouri.edu.

Area florists will display their artistic sensibility March 16–18 at the eighth annual Museum of Art and Archaeology’s “Art in Bloom” event.

Florists will show their floral arrangements inspired by artwork and artifacts in the museum’s collections. Also, floral costumes will be displayed by MU’s Textile and Apparel Management Department.

The free event will run 7 to 9 p.m. March 16 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 17 and 18.

For more information, call 882-3591.