The renovated and expanded Peabody Museum, scheduled to open in 2024, is designed with Yale students in mind. For the first time, the Museum will have spaces dedicated to learning, teaching, researching, and socializing. We have actively planned the design, infrastructure, contents, and workflows needed to best support students.
Just within the new north entrance and adjacent to the towering Central Gallery, visitors can view student exhibitions in a dedicated gallery. Students from across Yale will have opportunities to learn the process of exhibition design and installation while sharing their ideas and interests with the Yale community and public in this new space.
The new Study Gallery will open off the Central Gallery, a major hub and gathering place in the new Museum. Faculty are invited to submit proposals for the display of objects and specimens chosen in conjunction with Peabody Museum staff for their relevance to course assignments and activities. Each semester-long installation allows students to work and experience the objects independently over multiple visits and on their own schedule.
Our new imaging studios provide students with equipment and instrumentation to create diverse, cutting-edge images of specimens and objects. These spaces have dedicated collections storage, and staff will be on hand to assist students with coursework, research, and science communication initiatives.
A recording studio adjacent to the imaging studio will be outfitted with audio and video recording equipment, lighting, and a green screen to enable students to create podcasts, videos, and more with a focus on professional museum-quality science communication.
A large, lower-level classroom designed for hands-on activities like model-making, molding and casting of specimens, and preparation of paleontology specimens (which can require chipping or grinding away of rock matrix) is also outfitted for photography of large specimens with a camera on a swiveling arm. This classroom includes on-site collections storage in a secure interior room, allowing students and instructors to work directly with the research collection in a space ideally suited to teaching with objects.
A large Digital Classroom also opens off the Central Gallery, adjacent to the Study Gallery. This space will have removable seating for 24, and one wall will be devoted to a large screen suitable for viewing high-resolution images and video.
A first-floor classroom with beautiful wood paneling original to the 1926 building and a second-floor classroom both provide dedicated cameras and screens as well as on-site collections storage in secure, interior spaces, which makes it significantly easier to coordinate teaching with objects and specimens.
With 50% more exhibition space, the renovated Peabody Galleries will be designed with students in mind, and student voices will tell stories throughout the Exhibitions.
The Central Gallery, Study Gallery, Student Exhibition Gallery, and Imaging and Recording Studios will all be open late to support student study and research schedules. Comfortable seating in the Central Gallery and on the second floor will provide students with quiet workspaces with inspiring views of Peabody exhibitions.
Teach with Peabody
Learn MoreThe Yale Peabody Museum provides exceptional object-based teaching opportunities. Our Office of Student Programs facilitates teaching with Museum resources and fosters the engagement of Yale students with the help of over 14 million collections objects.
Research & Work at Peabody
Learn MoreThe collections of the Yale Peabody Museum, as well as the natural areas we manage, offer unparalleled opportunities for research. Whether for a class project, undergraduate summer internship or doctoral dissertation, each year over 80 students, postdocs and faculty members utilize the collections in their studies.
Connect, Explore & Experience Peabody
Learn MoreThe Student Programs Office is here to connect the Yale community with the resources and activities of the Peabody Museum. Learn more about our tours, presentations, workshops and performances, both online and in-person. There's always something happening at the Peabody!