After 10 years, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the highest accreditation for a museum.
"It's sort of the industry's gold housekeeping seal of approval, if you will," said Charlotte Hendrix, print and digital media producer for the museum. "It lists that we are sound, and it can be used when applying for grant funds, going to donors they see that we have this industry seal of approval."
The nation has more than 17,500 museums but only 1,005 are accredited.
"Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile -- those are accredited museums, but Auburn has the only University art museum that's accredited in the state," Hendrix said. "That's something that's a great source of pride for people attending school here and our alumni.
"The museum has both a University and community audience. We work with faculty, staff and students at the University, but we also have people who live and work here in the community that we want to provide with unparalleled art experiences and quality programming."
The AAM are advocates for museums, provide development resources and hold museums to standards of practice.
"It can also help with if we were to bring in a particular exhibition or borrow items from a museum's collection," Hendrix said. "They'll see we have been checked off for having good practices. For some exhibitions, it can be a requirement and it just lets people in our community know we are among the industry leaders."
One of the first steps in the accreditation process is implementing the Museum Assessment Program. The museum is reviewed from the mission statement to how the museum works with different audiences.
"From there, there was a site visit by peer reviewers where they came and looked at everything from how our storage area, our preservation area for art, is kept," Hendrix said. "They looked at how we hold the collection in the public trust and how well we manage that, how well we manage things operationally."
Hendrix said museums must be open for a period of time before submitting an accreditation application. She also said the museum's advisory board and staff knew accreditation was a goal.
"It's part of our ongoing celebration which will culminate, Oct. 4, when we open the first-ever outdoor sculpture exhibition called 'Out of the Box,'" Hendrix said. "That will be on view for one year, and we had artists from all over the country submit entries."
More than 100 entries from 70 different artists were submitted.
The artistic team then narrowed the entries to 10 finalists.
Hendrix said sculpture has been the focus for the semester.
Currently, Jean Woodham, Auburn alumna and noted sculptor, has sculptures that are on display.
Woodham graduated in 1946 and moved to New York.
Woodham will be at the museum for the exhibition opening where her sculpture will be displayed for public viewing.
"You've heard the song, 'It's a Man's World,'" Hendrix said. "Well, she was doing something at the time that wasn't really being done in terms of an art."
Woodham has two sculptures on Auburn's campus: "Spinoff," at the entrance of the museum and "Monody" in front of Goodwin Hall.
"The accreditation is really the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's going on," Hendrix said. "All the excitement with JCSM in the 10 years that we have served Auburn University and the Auburn community."
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