Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission

The collection is a teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate education in the apparel, merchandising, and design program, which is housed in the department of Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management. The collection is used as a source throughout the curriculum to learn about the social, historical, political, economic, and cultural aspects of fashion in various contexts.

We collect and document clothing, accessories, textiles, and other related objects to support the curriculum needs as we teach and exhibit various topics related to the past and the current cultural climate. These objects may come from regional, national, or global perspectives.

We are committed to experiential learning through the use of objects in the classroom setting and in exhibition building.

We aim to serve the campus community, particularly students and faculty. We also serve the Ames and Iowa community as well as scholars in the field at large.

We are committed to social justice and intersectionality in the study of fashion history. We recognize past museum practices in the field at large are often rooted in white supremacy, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, fat phobia, and xenophobia. We aim to reject these biases in our future practices related to documenting fashion histories.

Vision

The ISU Textiles and Clothing Museum will ​be a leader in ​innovative teaching ​strategies, ​rigorous scholarly research, and ​meaningful service/outreach among ​its peer fashion museums and collections within Apparel, Merchandising, and Design​-related academic departments.

Values