PA Museums 2024 Special Achievement Awards

Each year, PA Museums recognizes the special achievements of museums and historical organizations in Pennsylvania.

A PA Museums Special Achievement Award distinguishes your organization by:

• Serve as public recognition of staff or volunteers doing exemplary work;
• Encourage institutions to establish and maintain standards of excellence;
• Provide a vehicle to promote institutional achievement and individual professional success;
• Reinforce case statements attesting to the quality of your programs in grant applications, fundraising materials, or sponsorship proposals; and
• Publicly honoring awardees with peers and invited guests at a special awards ceremony during PA Museums’ statewide conference.

The deadline for submitting nominations is October 27, 2023 by 11:59 PM. Nominations must be submitted through the online form.  The link to the online form can be found here:

Institutional Awards Nomination Form

Individual Awards Nomination Form

Nominations will be reviewed, and awardees notified sometime in December 2023. Formal recognition of awardees will be given on the PA Museums’ website, in Tapestry, and at an awards ceremony held during our annual conference. The 2024 annual conference is tentatively scheduled to take place in Harrisburg, PA in April.

ELIGIBILITY

• A nominee for an award must be a member of PA Museums.
• Anyone may submit a nomination, including staff of the nominated organization.
• Nominations for joint projects may be submitted if all major partners are PA Museums’ members.
• PA Museums’ business affiliate members and individual members who are full- or part-time consultants are eligible for an award when the project has benefited a PA Museums’ institutional member and has been submitted jointly with that member.
• Groups of volunteers are not eligible for individual achievement awards.

Primary consideration will be given to projects completed within 18 months before the October 27, 2023 deadline. The review panel may also consider nominations for exceptional programs or individual volunteer activities extending over a longer period of time. We encourage past winners to submit nominations for activities that are significantly different from those that were previously recognized.

To check the status of your membership, please contact Rusty Baker, Executive Director, PA Museums, at rusty.baker@pamuseums.org.

AWARD CATEGORIES

Institutional Awards

Institutional Awards recognize outstanding and innovative projects that have provided an exemplary contribution to the museum, public history, or cultural tourism field in Pennsylvania. A nomination may be made for any project or best Pr that serves to raise the bar of excellence in the field.

Some examples of projects are:

• Programming that advances the institution in the areas of diversity, equality, accessibility and inclusion (DEAL) internally and through engagement with museum audiences and communities.
• An exhibit and related interpretive programming that presents an event/topic or tells a story in an innovative and compelling fashion.
• A successful cultural tourism program with marketing and media components that resulted in community development and collaboration.
• A publication or a school program that reaches and engages a previously underserved audience.
• A model earned-income program that has strengthened fiscal independence.
• A website providing greater public access to your programs and collections.

Some examples of a best practice may be:

• An innovative initiative to support BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) staff, interns and volunteers.
• A creative outreach initiative to broaden audiences (both visitors and online).
• A model housekeeping routine.
• A state-of-the-art volunteer or docent-training program.
• An innovative collections conservation or interpretive plan.
• A plan to acquire and exhibit work from a more diverse range of artists.
• A reevaluation of workplace culture.

Individual Awards of Merit (may only be awarded to an individual once)

Individual Awards of Merit recognize the lifetime achievements of career professionals and volunteers for leadership, scholarship, and lifetime contributions in the museum field. This award may only be given to an individual once in their lifetime.

Special Award Categories

PA Museums may award Special Awards (President’s Award, Director’s Award, Legislative Award, Institutional Advancement Award) at the discretion of the Awards Committee.

Carol Wickkiser Memorial Award

This $500 award recognizes exceptional promise and potential for leadership in an emerging professional with 10 years or less experience in the field. It is to be used for continuing education to enhance his or her expertise promoting collegial connections, and inspiring excellence and continued dedication to service to cultural institutions, museums, or historical organizations.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Institutional Awards

PA Museums’ Awards Committee judges nominations using three key scoring criteria to guide discussions.

These are:

Quality of the project, process or service (0-40 points)

How was this project implemented? What was innovative about this project? Is the project an outstanding example? What are the new ideas and how did you find them?

Audience: Access or Public Engagement (0-40 points)

How did this project or practice benefit the public? What audiences were targeted, how did you engage them, and what parts of your community became involved with your institution as a result? How did the project increase access to the institution’s exhibits, programs, or collections?

Management (0-20 points)

Was the project well planned and managed? Did completing the project relate to the mission? Were you able to implement the project at the highest level possible, given your staff and budget size? Is the nomination clear and complete?

Pennsylvania is privileged to have more than 1,100 cultural institutions, museums, and historical organizations of all sizes and disciplines. Projects are judged on their merits within the context of an organization’s own institutional capacity.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

PA Museums’ Awards Committee judges nominations using three key scoring criteria similar to those above to guide discussions. These are:

Quality of the leadership, professional practice, or volunteer work (0-40 points)

What makes this person’s work stand out? What could others learn from his or her example?

Impact of the individual effort (0-40 points)

How has this person’s leadership, professional work, or volunteer service helped audiences or the institution?

How has his or her work increased the institution’s capacity or advanced its place in a community?

Management (0-20 points)

Does this person’s work reflect sound judgment, and is it well managed and fiscally responsible? Is the nomination clear and complete?

PA Museums welcomes support for our annual awards program from individuals, institutions, and businesses that believe, as we do, that our annual awards make a difference. The annual awards have benefited so many organizations in Pennsylvania (a list of past awardees is below). You can help us call attention to and honor the efforts of museum professionals by making a donation anytime.

2023 Awards

Institutional Achievement Awards

Can you Live 18th Century
Conococheague Institute

Arch Street Meeting House Exterior Exhibits
Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust, Philadelphia

I Am a Penn Stater: Nittany Lions in World War II
Penn State University All-Sports Museum, University Park

Beyond Our Doorstep: Bringing Local History Into Your Home
Lackawanna County Historical Society, Scranton

Saint or Sinner? The Complicated Legacy of Senator Matthew Stanley Quay of Beaver, PA
Beaver Area Heritage Foundation

Liberty: Don Troiani’s Paintings of the Revolutionary War
The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia

Visible Storage Galleries
Chester County History Center, West Chester

Pennsylvania History Special Issue: Exploring Disability History in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Historical Association

Individual Awards

Janet Mishkin, Quiet Valley Living History Farm and Museum

S.K. Stevens Awards

The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia
When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807

The Science History Institute, Philadelphia
Downstream

The Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh
American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith

Stenton Museum and National Society of The Colonial Dames of America, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Virtual History Hunters

2022 Awards

Institutional Achievement Awards

Ephrata Cloister – 2020 Holiday Programming, Ephrata

Stenton Museum – Virtual History Hunters Program, Philadelphia

Heinz History Center – American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith, Pittsburgh

Heinz History Center – Portraits of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh

Jefferson County Historical Society – Pollywogs & Pollinators: Creating an ADA Accessible Garden Landscape & Education Area, Brookville

Science History Institute – Downstream Exhibition, Philadelphia

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum – Remembering 9/11 and Honoring Our Fallen Exhibition, Pittsburgh

Museum of the American Revolution – When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807, Philadelphia

Bradford House Historical Association – Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center, Washington

Chester County History Center – Becoming Chester County Exhibition, West Chester

Westmoreland Historical Society – Penn’s Woods Plenty for the Use of Man Exhibition, Greensburg

Christ Church Preservation Trust – Digitizing the Records of Philadelphia’s Historic Congregations, Philadelphia

Centre County Historical Society – Centre County Encyclopedia of Culture & History, State College

Individual Awards

Madison Flaherty, Discovery Space of Central PA, Carol Wickkiser Award, State College

Mark Sheffield, Fulton County Historical Society, McConnellsburg

Tracie Liberatore, Bradford House Historical Association, Washington

S.K. Stevens Awards

Pittsburgh, Virginia (exhibit), Fort Pitt Museum, Pittsburgh

Cost of Revolution: The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier (exhibit), The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia

2021 Awards

Institutional Achievement Awards

Cannon Ball Online Auction and Party To Go, Fort Ligonier, Ligonier

Berks History for Victory (exhibit), Berks History Center,  Reading

Pittsburgh, Virginia (exhibit), Fort Pitt Museum, Pittsburgh

Medal of Honor Display, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, Pittsburgh

Cost of Revolution: The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier (exhibit), The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia

Thrown, Fired and Glazed: The Redware Tradition from Pennsylvania and Beyond (exhibit), Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, Lancaster

Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Special Issue featuring the City Beautiful Exhibition and Digital Harrisburg (collaboration of Messiah University, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, and a number of community partners)Pennsylvania Historical Association

Individual Awards

Walter Rybka, Senior Captain and Site Administrator, Erie Maritime Museum/US Brig Niagara, Erie
Annita Andrick, Director of Library and Archives, Erie County Historical Society/Hagen History Center, Erie
Tom Bresenhan, Friends of The Joseph Priestley House, Northumberland

S.K. Stevens Awards

Hamilton Was Here, The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia

The Vietnam War: 1945-1975, The Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh

2020

Institutional Achievement Awards
Restoration of Al Capone’s Cell, Eastern State Penitentiary and Historic Site, Philadelphia
Museum Lab, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
The Vietnam War 1945-1975, The Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh
Hamilton Was Here, The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia
McKean County Historic Collectible Pin Program, Allegheny National Forest Visitor’s Bureau, Bradford
Shan Goshorn: Resisting the Mission, The Trout Gallery at the Art Museum of Dickinson College, Carlisle
George Washington Birthday Parties, Fort Ligonier, Ligonier
Stones n Bones Exhibit, Jefferson County History Center, Brookville
Gathering of Governors, Pennsbury Manor, Morrisville

Individual Awards
Sime Bertolet, Berks History Center, Reading
Sue Hanna, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg

Carol Wickkiser Memorial Award (Emerging Museum Professional)
Matthew Skic, The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia

S.K. Stevens Award
Community Heart and Soul Project, Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle
Revolution Place Discovery Center, The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia

2019

Institutional Achievement Awards
Negley Log House Rebuild, Conococheague Institute for the Study of Cultural Heritage, Mercersburg
Community Heart and Soul Project, Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle
New Mission Statement and Strategic Plan, Eastern State Penitentiary and Historic Site, Philadelphia
Waves of the Past, Sailors of the Future, Flagship Niagara League/U.S. Brig Niagara, Erie
Fortifying our Future: Enhancing Fort Ligonier, Fort Ligonier, Ligonier
Revolution Place Discovery Center, The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia
Bringing History Alive at Old Economy Village, Old Economy Village, Ambridge
Field to Front: Nittany Lions at War, 1917-1919, Penn State University All Sports Museum, University Park
Modernation and Improvement of Museum Collections Management, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall Museum, Pittsburgh
Restoration and Reinterpretation of Mammal Hall, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg
Historic Center and Cemetery, Stoddartsville Preservation Society, Stoddartsville

Individual Awards
Steve Appleby, The Eldred World War II Museum, Eldred
Sarah Buffington, Old Economy Village, Ambridge
Hope W. Kopf, The Joseph Priestly House, Northumberland

S.K. Stevens Award
The Museum of the American Revolution, Washington’s War Tent

2018

Institutional Achievement Awards
Washington’s War Tent, The Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia
Kids as Curators, Erie Art Museum, Erie
Berks History Center Collections Management Project, Berks History Center, Reading
Defending Democracy: Bradford County in World War I, A Centennial Remembrance, Bradford County Historical Society, Towanda
From Maps to Mermaids, Carved Powder Horns, Fort Pitt Museum/The Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh
Ice Age Meets Space Age: The Use of Innovative Gigapan Technology in the Revised First Peoples: Archaeology at Meadowcroft Rockshelter Curriculum, Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village/The Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh
York County History Center Campus Project, York History Center, York
Make the Switch at Phipps! Green Power Drive, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Pittsburgh
Unraveling the Threads of History: Needlework Samplers, Centre County Historical Society, State College

Individual Achievement Award
Albert LeCoff, The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia

Carol Wickkiser Memorial Award
Matt Gault, Fort Ligonier, Ligonier

S.K. Stevens Awards
Scripture Rocks Heritage Park, Jefferson County History Center, Brookville
Prisons Today: Questions in the age of Mass Incarceration, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia

2017

Institutional Achievement Awards
Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library, Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle
Scripture Rocks Heritage Park, Jefferson County History Center, Brookville
Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site exhibit, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia
The Virtual Museum: Bringing the Museum to You special project, National Watch and Clock Museum, Columbia
Weathervanes: Three Centuries of a Pennsylvania Folk Art Tradition exhibit, Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, Lancaster
Wexford Station project, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Washington

Institutional Honorable Mention
Pennsylvania Cultural Resilience Network special project, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, Philadelphia

S.K. Stevens Award*
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Galeton

Individual Achievement Awards
Ken Burkett, Executive Director, Jefferson County History Center
J. Steven Humphrey, Executive Director, National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors
John Vanco, Executive Director, Erie Art Museum, Erie

2016

Institutional Achievement Awards
Share the Story Scholarship Fund, The Hershey Story Museum, Hershey
Hidden Collections Initiative, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Visitor Center Expansion & New Core Exhibit, Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Galeton

Institutional Honorable Mentions
Women in Aerospace & Technology program, American Helicopter Museum & Education Center, West Chester
Fort Augusta special project, Northumberland County Historical Society, Sunbury

S.K. Stevens Award*
Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia

2015

Institutional Achievement Award
The Big Graph exhibit, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia
Museum on the Move program, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh

Institutional Honorable Mentions
A Legacy of Learning program, Historic Fair Hill, Philadelphia

S.K. Stevens Awards*

Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum, Gettysburg
Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, Lancaster

2014

Institutional Achievement Awards
Pennsylvania’s Top Ten Endangered Artifacts special project, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, Philadelphia
The Blood in the Life: Vampires in Art and Nature exhibit and programming, The Everhart Museum, Scranton

Institutional Honorable Mentions
Farm Days 1866 program, Bradford County Heritage Association, Troy
Turning Points: Civil War, 1863-1864 exhibit and programming, Mercer Museum, Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown

President’s Award
From Slavery to Freedom exhibit, Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh

Director’s Award
Voices of Duty and Devotion exhibit and museum opening, Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum, Gettysburg

Carol Wickkiser Memorial Award (Emerging Museum Professional)
Daniel Roe, Director of Education, The York County Heritage Trust, York