The full 2023 OMA Awards announcement can be found here.
The Ohio Museums Association has announced the winners of the 2023 OMA Awards of Achievement and 2023 Visual Communication Awards. These winners were recognized during the Annual OMA Awards Dinner, which took place Sunday, April 14 at the Sawmill Creek Resort in conjunction with the Ohio Museums Association's 2024 Annual Conference.
The OMA Awards program is an annual celebration of the outstanding achievement of Ohio museums in visual communications, individual and institutional achievement, and the tireless work museum professionals undertake to help advance Ohio’s museum community both locally, and on a national level.
The Awards of Achievement are divided into two categories: Institutional Achievement Awards and Individual Achievement Awards.
Nominations for these awards are incredibly detailed. This in-depth process helps to illustrate how these institutions and individuals have gone “above and beyond” the normal call of duty to support their institution, serve their public and advance the cause of the museum community.
Best Education and Outreach (Over $500,000)
Akron Art Museum—“Essential Experiences: Artists as Inventors”
2023 OMA Award Spotlight
Akron Art Museum
Over five months, the Museum welcomes over 1700 unique students to the institution, with over half of those students visiting the Museum for the first time each year of this three-year partnership. Through this initiative, all Akron Public Schools fourth grade students visit the Akron Art Museum to participate in an experience that has been designed to meet their specific academic, developmental, and social-emotional needs through the theme of “Artists as Inventors”.
Students visit the Museum’s collection and special exhibition galleries, investigating three ways in which artists act as inventors: using new materials, solving problems, and seeing the world in new ways. After exploring artworks in the galleries, students enter the Museum’s Art Lab. There, students are presented with an art challenge, written by a local/regional contemporary artist, and groups will work together to plan, create, and document their art invention, then present their work to the larger group.
The museum has successfully encouraged repeat visitation by these students and their families with engaging post-visit programming, highlighting the museum’s commitment to engaging new museum visitors and creating a sense of welcome and belonging to folks in the community who otherwise have not participated in museum programming.
Through this program, the museum has hired and trained six new part-time staff members and commissioned ten local artists throughout the community, while deepening the museum’s connection to the city’s largest school district, engaging teachers, school administrators, and district-level employees.
Tricia Kelly, Expanded Learning Teacher of College & Career Academies at Akron Public Schools writes, “to date, over 7,000 scholars have had the opportunity to visit the Akron Art Museum and participate in this high-quality programming with equity. Essential Experiences: Artists as Inventor is an outstanding example of how an experience can help transform learning and cultivate community connections for scholars.”