'A hidden gem on campus': CMU Museum unveils its learning through games exhibit
The CMU Museum of Cultural and Natural History hosts an exhibit on “Magic Circles: Society through Game Spaces” in Rowe Hall.
In the backroom of Rowe Hall lie board games, video games and decorations of the Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural History exhibit. Right when you walk in, there’s a bear statue holding a dice, and various classic games on display.
As you continue through the exhibit, there are games hand-made by various museum studies students across campus. One game is like Dungeons and Dragons, but is played without a game master, someone who narrates the gameplay.
The exhibit is called “Magic Circles: Society through Game Spaces” and is in partnership with the Center for Learning through Games and Simulations.
It explores the history of games, from classic board games to modern gaming systems, and how they bring people together through play and connection, according to the LinkedIn post by CMU.
Kayli Adams is a senior student, a part of the accelerated master's program, and she helped design the exhibit.
“First off, I designed the logo as well as a lot of the art you see in the hallway,” she said about her participation in the exhibit. “I also made those chess pieces, and I did a lot of work with the grief and isolation labels as well.”
The museum holds exhibits on display for two years and is produced by CMU students and faculty.
Adams was both a graphic design volunteer and a CMU Museum student assistant. She said her favorite part about the exhibit is how everyone pulled together to make it possible.
“Because we’re a smaller department, but you get this ... closeness, this community, and it’s just wonderful,” Adams said.
In the back corner of the exhibit, there is an ode to E-Sports, with jerseys on the wall and a computer available for play.
To the right of the E-Sports section are arcade-style games, with handmade boxes that display playable games on the screen.
The detailed list of workers on the project helped in various ways, in planning for the event, designing graphics, and volunteers.
“I (have) worked at the CMU Museum for a couple of years now. I was introduced to it once it was announced to the internal team,” Adams said. “Then I was just like, 'Hey, okay,' because I love games.”
The process of planning the event had workers planning how the games would play, and how they wanted them to look. Then, the graphic design volunteers had made the pieces.
The previous exhibit shown by the museum was with the American Chemical Society and taught the history of chemistry. The prior one was called “Cosmic Clash”, which was about the history of the 1960s.
“Yeah, it was really cool. We still had remnants of it (the last exhibit) for the longest time on the walls because it got put up in, I think, late 2019, and then COVID, of course,” Adams said about the “Cosmic Clash” exhibit. “So, we kept it for longer because these are supposed to be rotated every two years, and so, obviously, that was not going to happen with COVID.”
The exhibit had its opening day around the end of March and will remain open until 2028, when the team unveils a new exhibit.
“I think the fact that this exhibit put us a bit back on the map, a hidden gem on campus, in my opinion,” Adams said. “Not a lot of students know that we have a museum on campus.”
