The MSU Museum main entrance after the renovation on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025.
The Michigan State University Museum is set to reopen its doors to the public on Jan. 14, with new additions and exhibitions awaiting visitors and guests. This comes after the MSU Board of Trustees approved the $28 million renovation project for the century-old building in 2021, with the renovation process beginning in 2024.
The building holds historical value to the university since being created in 1857, just two years after MSU, then called the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, was founded. MSU Museum Director Devon Akmon said with the museum’s history intertwined with MSU’s, it’s hard to find other colleges and units that have lasted that long.
"I think there are a couple of really great things about Michigan State University, and the first is the notion that we're a land-grant — we're meant to be accessible to everybody," Akmon said. "The second is that when this university was founded, it also had the concept of a museum being part of that whole division. To be here today, 165 years later, and doing a renovation and thinking about the future, is a really special thing when we think about the whole history of MSU."
Among the renovations made are modernized restrooms, climate control upgrades, new spaces for teaching throughout the building, a new immersive lab, an experiential learning gallery and student lounges on the lower and upper levels of the museum.
"What's really the magic is not so much the building, it's what happens inside the building," Akmon said. "We have a whole host of activities that range from the programs that support exhibitions to the types of things we collaborate with students and faculty on."
One of the things Akmon is looking forward to after the museum's reopening is MSU’s partnership with the Smithsonian Museum, marked by a temporary exhibition serving as Michigan’s first affiliate of the museum.
"There's a little bit of something for everybody, and what I'm really looking forward to is the way people respond to this kind of stuff that we're putting forward and the way that we're trying to bring new things to our audiences here on campus," Akmon said. "For us, it's a lot of observing and adapting of what's working and what's really resonating on campus."
Part of the museum's reopening will be a ceremony where members of MSU’s leadership will be in attendance, Akmon said.
"We'll have a little ceremony where we all kind of think about the future of what this museum will look like at its 200th anniversary in 2057," Akmon said. "It'll be the first time since the renovation that anybody gets to come into the museum, but for some of our students, this might be the first time ever. I think it's gonna change a lot of people's perceptions and they're also gonna be a little surprised by how much has changed in such a short amount of time."
When thinking about the past and how far the MSU Museum has come, Akmon said he thinks it’s important to look to the future, as the museum will be evolving and changing more over time while staying true to its roots.
"I think things might look different year after year, and I'm not just saying the temporary exhibitions, but we have big visions of what the museum will be," Akmon said. "This is just another stop in the evolution of this museum, so we're really eager and excited as we open and see how people respond, to get more ideas about how we can continue to evolve and iterate so that this museum is very much a living entity as we move into the future."
