Since his appointment as Director in 2021, Devon Akmon has led the Michigan State University Museum through a period of bold transformation and modernization. A visionary leader in the field, Devon also serves as the Chair of the Board for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), where he helps shape the national conversation on how institutions can evolve to meet the needs of the 21st century. In this interview, we explore the intricate "behind-the-scenes" world of museum logistics and Devon shares his insights on what it takes to bridge the gap between historic stewardship and future innovation. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Devon Akmon for sharing his time and expertise with us.
Devon Akmon, Director of the MSU Museum (Photo Courtesy of the MSU Museum)
Crozier: Crozier partnered with the MSU Museum on a delicate logistics project that spanned over two years. What were the goals of the project and what were the key elements for success?
Devon Akmon: Crozier partnered with the MSU Museum on one of the most delicate logistics projects in our recent history. This two-year effort was tied directly to the major renovation of our building. As the museum underwent an extensive overhaul to install state-of-the-art climate control and other infrastructure upgrades that safeguard and ensure excellent stewardship of our collections far into the future, we faced a fundamental problem. Our science collections could not remain in the building during construction, yet they were far too significant and too fragile to be moved without extraordinary care.
The project carried two goals that pulled in different directions. The first was to safely relocate our science collections to offsite storage, protecting them at every stage of the move. The second was to maintain uninterrupted access to our teaching collections, so that faculty and students could continue using them in coursework throughout the renovation. We were not willing to let a construction timeline interrupt the educational mission those collections serve.
What made this especially daunting was the nature of the collection itself, which includes specimens of extinct and vulnerable species. These are irreplaceable holdings of enormous scientific and cultural value, and a single mishandled specimen is a loss that cannot be undone. Every decision about packing, climate, transport, and storage had to meet an exacting standard.
Success came down to a few essential elements. Meticulous planning let us map every step in advance and anticipate risks before they materialized. Specialized handling and environmental control protected fragile specimens from the physical and climate stresses of transit and storage. A close, trusting partnership between Crozier and our collections staff paired logistics expertise with deep knowledge of the objects themselves. Thoughtful sequencing kept our teaching collections accessible even as the larger move proceeded.
In the end, the project did more than relocate a collection. It safeguarded an irreplaceable scientific resource and kept it in service of teaching and research, all while the museum took a transformative step toward its future.
Crozier: As the Chair of the Board for the American Alliance of Museums, what do you see for the future of museums?
Akmon: The future of museums is being shaped by a fundamental shift in how people spend their time and money, and where they look for learning and connection. Museums are no longer just competing for time and attention. They are competing against algorithms that tailor every experience to the individual, and now against AI as one more force reshaping how people work, learn, and explore the world. In a landscape like this, people increasingly seek out experiences that are immersive and transformative rather than transactional, and few institutions are better positioned to offer that kind of experience. Museums have moved beyond simply staging memorable moments toward something deeper: guiding genuine transformation, helping people grow and change through what they encounter.
Experience alone isn't the whole story. I see museums leveraging their missions to address real social concerns: supporting creative aging, countering the loneliness epidemic, and giving people meaningful reasons to gather. In that sense, museums are becoming essential social infrastructure, as vital to community wellbeing as parks and libraries.
Museums will also become places to create, not just to consume, and this is where collections become vital. They are stewards of the objects, specimens, and stories that carry our shared cultural and natural heritage. Those collections are what we learn from and build on, anchoring the museum as a space for collaboration and discovery where people come together to interpret the past and make something new. That is the future I'm most excited about: museums as stewards of heritage and engines of transformation, belonging, and community life.
Crozier: What are some of the unique challenges that a university museum collection faces?
Akmon: University museum collections occupy a distinctive space, serving the academic mission of teaching, research, and public engagement all at once. That tripartite role is both their greatest strength and their central challenge, because each demand pulls on the collection in a different way.
In teaching, the challenge is making collections genuinely usable in the classroom. Embedding objects and specimens directly into coursework and experiential learning means putting fragile, valuable, and sometimes irreplaceable material into the hands of students. That requires balancing access against preservation and building the faculty relationships that ensure collections are truly integrated into learning rather than overlooked.
In research, the challenge is keeping collections alive as engines of new knowledge. Specimens and objects are not static holdings but active research infrastructure, and that means sustaining the documentation, digitization, and conservation needed to make them discoverable and usable by scholars. It also means stewarding material whose research value may not be obvious today but could prove essential to questions no one has yet thought to ask.
In public engagement, the challenge is connecting an academic collection with audiences beyond the university. A university museum must translate specialized scholarship for the broader public, build trust with surrounding communities, and demonstrate relevance to people who may never take a course or read a paper. This is especially demanding when the collection includes culturally sensitive material that calls for sustained, respectful partnership with diverse communities.
This is also why digital surrogates represent such an exciting opportunity. High-quality digital versions of objects and specimens expand access for both teaching and research, putting fragile or irreplaceable material into far more hands without putting the originals at risk. They allow students to engage with collections beyond what could ever circulate in a classroom, and they let researchers examine, compare, and analyze holdings remotely. Just as important, they open the door to new collaborations across institutions and disciplines, connecting collections and scholars who might otherwise never work together, and generating knowledge through shared discovery.
The deeper challenge is that all three demands compete for the same finite resources of staff, space, and funding, often within a university budget where the museum is one priority among many. Doing justice to teaching, research, and public engagement at the same time, and doing it well, is the defining test of a university museum collection.
Photo Courtesy of the MSU Museum
Crozier: What is your overarching vision and mission for the MSU Museum?
Devon Akmon: Our vision for the MSU Museum is of a place that catalyzes creativity. It is a place where the MSU community, inspired and informed by the arts and sciences, works collaboratively, creatively, and equitably to solve problems and pursue a better world. We seek to position the museum as a model for what an academic museum can be in the twenty-first century: rigorous in its scholarship, working across disciplines to foster discovery and new knowledge, and unafraid to experiment.
That vision rests on a clear mission. The MSU Museum serves the Michigan State University community by facilitating and creating experiences at the nexus of the arts, sciences, cultures, and technologies. This interdisciplinary mission is what makes us distinctive. We work across colleges and disciplines rather than within any single one, and few units on campus are positioned to convene the arts and the sciences in the same room. That convening power is especially potent in an academic setting, where the boundaries between fields are often where the most important discoveries happen. It is also why our placement matters. As part of the Office of the Provost, we are an essential support unit for the entire university and its academic mission, a reflection of how vital the museum is to academic life and to the success of our students and faculty.
Our mission shapes everything we do. We deliberately center the big issues of our time, including the complex, wicked problems that resist easy answers, and we treat them as subjects to explore through timely and relevant content. By drawing on collections, scholarship, and creative practice together, we help our community examine these challenges from multiple angles and imagine new ways forward.
Ultimately, this is a museum measured by its impact. We inspire students to see the world differently and create something new, we partner with faculty to bring scholarship to life, and we bring the campus and wider community together to break paradigms and shift mindsets. The MSU Museum does not simply hold collections or stage exhibitions. It serves as a bridge between scholarship and the communities it serves, and it continually reimagines its role in the academic and civic life of the community.
