UM Museum Collections Manager Recognized for Excellence

Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Communications

Marti Funke, collections manager and exhibitions coordinator for the University of Mississippi Museum, is the 2016 recipient of the Southeastern Museums Conference’s Emerging Museum Professionals Award.

Funke has administrative responsibility for the museum’s artworks and artifacts, a collection of more than 20,000 objects. Her duties include registration of items, risk management insurance supervision, collection loans and storage. Additionally, she coordinates with artists and lenders, reviews exhibition proposals and supervisors the installation and removal of all exhibits.

“I am so honored by the nomination by my director, Robert Saarnio, and other community colleagues for this award, and very excited to have won among so many other wonderfully qualified museum professionals in the Southeast,” Funke said. “It means so much to be recognized for my hard work at the University Museum, and all the success and recognition that the museum has achieved over the last five years.”

Funke earned her bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in art history and her master’s degree in museum studies, both from the University of Kansas. She worked as assistant curator at the Ulrich Museum of Contemporary Art at Wichita State University and as assistant registrar at the Wichita Art Museum before arriving at Ole Miss in 2011.

She also has been in active in the Oxford community. She served as secretary for the L.Q.C. Lamar House Museum, volunteers with St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, served as a grant reviewer for the National Endowment of the Humanities and has participated in George Washington University’s Museum Leadership Seminar.

The award, initiated in 2007, recognizes museum professionals who demonstrate excellence and leadership at their institutions.

“The University Museum is exceptionally proud of this significant honor being accorded to our colleague Marti Funke by our regional museum association,” said Robert Saarnio, UM Museum director.

“By far the most meaningful museum awards and recognitions are those that come from one’s peer museum community, so it’s particularly notable that Marti is identified as this year’s Emerging Museum Professional by her peers from within an entire 12-state region. Marti embodies the best of the museum profession, and she also exemplifies the entire museum team in our staff’s high levels of professionalism, skill and dedication.”

Funke’s work includes the supervision of renowned permanent collections such as the David M. Robinson Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, which includes more than 2,000 artifacts, and rare photographs taken by Memphis native William Eggleston that are on display at the museum.

By Christina Steube and the Ole Miss News Desk