|
New York, NY, April 30, 2021—The 2021 Awards for Excellence were released yesterday during a virtual celebration at the Association of Art Museum Curators’s (AAMC) Art Curators Conference. The Awards for Excellence, highly esteemed by art curators everywhere, is the only award of its kind by which curators directly honor their colleagues. This year’s cycle pays tribute to groundbreaking digital curatorial achievements, including Digital Publication, Online Exhibition, Online Resource Development, and Online Programming, both single episode and series. Nearly fifty nominations were submitted and vetted by groups of curator jurors from around the world, with importance placed upon how each entry reflected AAMC’s core values of inclusion, access, dialogue, and engagement.
Six projects were honored: Raid the Icebox Now from the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum; FEAR TOUCH POLICE from the Swiss Institute; Art and Activism in Our Time of Crisis from the Crow Museum of Asian Art; Engine for Art Democracy and Justice: Living in Common in the Precarious South(s); a partnership between Vanderbilt University, Fisk University, Frist Art Museum, and Millions of Conversations; Latinx Collections Portal from the National Museum of African American History and Culture; and Louis H. Draper Archive Portal from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
“We are honored to recognize curators for groundbreaking projects that have advanced new methodologies, scholarship, and inclusion and access within the arts,” said Judith Pineiro, Executive Director, AAMC & AAMC Foundation, “We also want to acknowledge and share gratitude to curators everywhere who swiftly embraced digital platforms in order to continue sharing exhibitions, collections, and scholarship with communities around the world.” Throughout May and June, AAMC will release social media stories with each curator sharing what inspired their work on the awarded project, and you can watch a short film of the Awardees talking about their project’s inspiration here. The lead curators and additional team leads receiving awards are Sarah Ganz Blythe, Brendan Campbell, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jacqueline Chao, Ariana Curtis, Sarah Eckhardt, Carson Evans, Marina Fokidis, Carolyn Gennari, Erik Gould, Emily Houf, Jan Howard, Vivian Li, Dominic Molon, Amy Pickworth, Jeremy Radtke, Douglas Remley, Mark Scala, Derek Schusterbauer, Sandra Sellars, Jamaal Sheats, Sable Elyse Smith, Courtney Tkacz, and Elizabeth Williams.
2021 Awards for Excellence
DIGITAL PUBLICATION: Raid the Icebox Now; Rhode Island School of Design, Museum Lead Curators at the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum Sarah Ganz Blythe, Deputy Director, Exhibitions, Education, and Programs Dominic Molon, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art Additional Team Leads at the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum Brendan Campbell, Graphic Designer Carson Evans, Digital Content Fellow Carolyn Gennari, Content Producer Erik Gould, Museum Photographer Jan Howard, Houghton P. Metcalf Jr. Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Amy Pickworth, Assistant Director of Museum Publications and Senior Editor Jeremy Radtke, Assistant Director, Digital Initiatives Derek Schusterbauer, Senior Graphic Designer Elizabeth Williams, David and Peggy Rockefeller Curator of Decorative Arts and Design ONLINE EXHIBITION: FEAR TOUCH POLICE; Swiss Institute
Lead Curator Sable Elyse Smith, Curator & Artist ONLINE PROGRAMMING: SINGLE EPISODE: Art and Activism in Our Time of Crisis; Crow Museum of Asian Art
Lead Curators Jacqueline Chao, Senior Curator of Asian Art, Crow Museum of Asian Art Vivian Li, Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art, Dallas Museum of Art ONLINE PROGRAMMING – SERIES ACROSS MULTIPLE ORGANIZATIONS: Engine for Art Democracy and Justice: Living in Common in the Precarious South(s); a partnership between Vanderbilt University, Fisk University, Frist Art Museum, and Millions of Conversations Lead Curators Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Founder, Engine for Art Democracy and Justice and Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair Professor of Fine Arts, Vanderbilt University Marina Fokidis, Curator and Writer; 2020 Online Program Curator, Engine for Art Democracy and Justice, Vanderbilt University Mark Scala, Chief Curator, Frist Art Museum Jamaal Sheats, Director and Curator, Fisk University Galleries ONLINE RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT: Latinx Collections Portal; National Museum of African American History and Culture and Louis H. Draper Archive Portal; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Tied Awarded Projects) For: Latinx Collections Portal Lead Curator Ariana Curtis, Curator of Latinx Studies, National Museum of African American History and Culture Additional Team Leads at the National Museum of African American History and Culture Emily Houf, Collection Information Specialist Douglas Remley, Rights & Reproductions Specialist And
For: Louis H. Draper Archive Portal Lead Curator Sarah Eckhardt, Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Additional Team Leads at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Sandra Sellars, Assistant Photographer Courtney Tkacz, Archivist About AAMC & AAMC Foundation Founded in 2001, the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) & AAMC Foundation advances the curatorial field through forward-looking leadership in development and educational opportunities for learning and connecting at every stage of a curator’s career. In partnership with more than 1,300 members, we serve as a resource for the profession’s best practices, codes of conduct and ethical standards. We provide a platform for the exchange of a broad range of information on critical issues driving the field, including diversity and inclusion, digital innovation, artistic voices and histories, and marketing and audience engagement. Our members include independent curators and staff members from 500+ art organizations and museums in eighteen countries, ranging from leading national institutions to community-based art organizations. Through our work we serve members, professional colleagues, and the public, and our outreach reflects diverse perspectives within the field, often examining strategic directions of curatorial practice and art organization management. With a network spanning the globe, we are an ambassador and advocate for all art curators and the leading champion of their significant contributions. Contact### | 
Print Page
Email to a Friend