A statue of an Arabian horse marks the front of the exhibition hall in Lexington, Ky. (Photo Courtesy of Joy Mistele)

WARRENSBURG, Mo.—Ask people what the University of Central Missouri is known for, and they may mention criminal justice, aviation, sports, business or training teachers.

But this summer and fall, perhaps a half-million people will learn of another side of this university, as they visit an international exhibit in Lexington, Ky.

There, among 400 items from some of the world’s best-known museums, is a prominent display of 64 priceless items from UCM’s Nance Middle East Collection of Bedouin culture.

It would be difficult to miss the UCM collection. For one thing, it includes a Bedouin tent about 30 feet long by 10 feet deep by 6 ½ feet tall, which is a part of the Nance Collection.

Amber Clifford-Napoleone, an UCM instructor in anthropology and curator of the Nance Collection, said she was first approached last October about the loan of the items for exhibit at “A Gift from the Desert,” an exhibit in connection with the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington.

Tribute to Arabian horse

The exhibit is a tribute to the art, history and culture of the Arabian horse, and has selected items from the National Museum of Saudi Arabia, the British Museum, the Egyptian Museum, Oxford University, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, plus museums from Germany, Poland, Qatar, France, the United Arab Emirates—and UCM.

Clifford-Napoleone glows with pride about the Nance Collection being included in this exhibition, which opened May 29 and runs until Oct. 15.

It has been a labor of love for her. She began volunteering at Central’s Arthur F. McClure II Archives and University Museum when she was 14, then decided to major in anthropology here.

John Sheets, head of the museum, once assigned her as a work-study student to develop a bibliography of the Nance Collection, and her interest in it has grown over the years. The collection is vast—about 5,000 items, mostly from Saudi Arabia, but also from India and Southeast Asia.

After going to Texas for a master's degree and Kansas for her docorate, she came back to UCM, and the Nance Collection. She has continued to work with it since.

How did she decide what would be displayed in Lexington from among thousands of items? She and Cynthia Culbetson, co-curator of the exhibition, made the selections, and Clifford accompanied the collection to Kentucky. “I don’t trust shipping our collection to the post office,” she said, with a grin.

Royal approval

Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Mohammed, Saudi minister of education and honorary president of the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation, looks at the artifacts at the exhibit. (Photo Courtesy of Joy Mistele)

It took five days to install the UCM exhibit, and Clifford was “the only one with any experience of setting up a Bedouin tent indoors.” The Nance display apparently pleased the royal family of Saudi Arabia, because it had a catered lunch in front of the tent during the opening of the exhibition.

Clifford said she is proud to see UCM sharing the spotlight with some of the world’s top museums, and is proud the university found a home for the Nance Collection, after others had passed on the opportunity.

Paul J. Nance had been with the oil company, Aramco, in Saudi Arabia for 35 years, and he and his wife, Colleen, collected items, ranging from beaded dresses and handbags to bracelets and necklaces, coffee pots to incense burners, leather bags to camel saddles. The royal family gave written permission for them to bring the items to America, where Nance hoped to establish a private museum.

He did so, on his farm near Lone Jack, Mo., in 1983. Because of its location, the museum didn’t attract a lot of visitors, so Nance began approaching area universities about becoming the home for his collection. He found no takers, until he met with Sheets at Central.

“At first, the collection was on loan to us, and had never been organized,” Sheets recalls. “I guess I broke some rules when I sent a work-study student (Clifford) to Nance’s farm. She brought some real order to it.”

Finding a home

Until the museum was relocated to the Union in 1993, much of the Nance Collection was not seen by the public, because of security issues. A permanent home for the archives and museum was included in the plans for the Kilpatrick Library.

Still, not all of the pieces have been on display at once, because the items age under bright lights, so are rotated from time to time, Sheets said, estimating that no more than one-fourth to one-third are displayed at any one time.

He beams with pride about the Nance Collection being here, and bringing an international spotlight on the University. “After this exhibition (in Kentucky), the catalog of the exhibit has us forever recorded as associated with a remarkable list of world-class institutions.”

Dee Hudson, former member of UCM’s Board of Governors, was at the exhibition opening, and said ”It is a beautiful display, very impressive, and draws your attention to the age of the items, the brilliant colors and the variety in the collection.”

Hudson had expected a small UCM exhibit, so was pleasantly surprised. While pieces from other institutions are displayed on pedestals or in glass cases, UCM’s collection is set up as a Bedouin camp, complete with a big tent and sand, she said. “I found myself believing people could be living there.” She marveled at a separate exhibit of jewelry that had been inspired by the topic of the Arabian horse, and had been created for this occasion.

Some items from the Nance Collection have been loaned to museums in Houston, Cleveland and Fort Worth, plus the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia. The items sent to the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will be on display in public areas of Ambassador James Smith’s home for three years.

Since the opening of the Lexington exhibition, Clifford has received inquiries from U.S. and international institutions about possible loans of some of the artifacts. “The Nance Collection has always been important,” she said, but now, “UCM is in the public eye on a different level.”

Dean Gersham Nelson of UCM’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies, said being included among exhibits from some of the world’s greatest museums is an outstanding opportunity for UCM. “I expect we will be getting more inquiries from scholars and museums, wanting to borrow some of the collection, and more to do visitations to do research here.”

Part of a dream

Joy Mistele (second from left), UCM senior major gifts officer, and Dee Hudson, former member of the UCM Board of Governors,(second from right), with the daughters of Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Mohammed. (Photo Courtesy of Joy Mistele)

What does this collection, and its international exposure, mean for UCM? Nelson said it is another good reason for UCM to build an arts center, to include the performing arts, as well as the Nance collection and other museum gems, such as the Essig collection of rare musical instruments.

He foresees establishment of a Middle Eastern studies center at Central, with a fellowship to attract scholars on a rotating basis, to work with researchers and even with high school students wanting to learn about the history and culture of the Middle East.

Nelson and Sheets plan to travel to Saudi Arabia in October to meet with leaders about nuturing the relationship between that country and Central. “That trip could spike interest in our relationship,” Nelson said. He noted UCM has alumni from Saudi and others who are working there, who want to see a relationship grow.

Nance, who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, is in his 80s, and plans to visit the Gift from the Desert in September, taking along his grandchildren.

Clifford will be making two more trips to Lexington—one over Labor Day, when UCM will be taking some students there, and another at the close of the exhibition, to supervise the packing and shipment of the collection back to UCM.

The exhibition is at the Kentucky Horse Park, north of Lexington. It is open daily through the closing Oct. 15.

For more photos of UCM's Nance Middle East Collection Click here