Athens, Ga. – The Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries recently gave five awards to the Georgia Museum of Art at its annual conference. GMOA received the following awards: Education Program of the Year, Special Project, Exhibition of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Museum Professional of the Year.
All GAMG awards recognize museums that demonstrate scholarship and originality contributing to the cultural and educational fabric of the nominee’s community and the state, are exemplary in theory, planning and implementation and have effectively reached and broadened the museum audience.
Education Program of the Year
Art Adventures is a summer outreach program for children based on works of art in the exhibitions and GMOA’s permanent collection. In 2010, Art Adventures focused on printmaking and conducted 31 workshops at 17 venues and reached 759 participants. The Education Program of the Yearaward honors on-site or outreach programs that extend a museum’s mission while educating students and/or adult audiences.
Special Project
In Corpus of Early Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections: The South, Perri Lee Roberts, discusses more than 400 paintings, each with a high-quality reproduction. Three volumes make up the Corpus, which covers early Italian paintings in public collections in the South.
Exhibition of the Year (Under $100,000)
Echoes from the Continent: Franco-Germanic Chairs in Georgia was organized by Dale Couch, curator of decorative arts at GMOA, and took place at the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center in Madison. It documented, described and presented a regional form and connected it to world aesthetic systems.
Couch brought together three contributing institutions and a private business to produce a collaborative exhibition-the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts of Winston-Salem, N.C., Brunk Auctions of Asheville, N.C., and the MMCC.
Volunteer of the Year
Betty Myrtle, of Athens, has served as a volunteer at GMOA for the past 15 years.Her activities range from an extended tenure on the board of directors of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art to her current position on the museum’s board of advisors. She also is the chair of the Collectors, a volunteer/social group of GMOA. The Volunteer of the Year award is given to museum volunteers who have developed their museum’s programs and exhibitions in an outstanding way, have enlisted the aid of other volunteers and have served as advocates of Georgia museums and galleries.
Museum Professional of the Year
Cecelia Warner, GMOA curator of education, develops and implements academic and outreach programs for audiences of all ages. She leads the docents in rigorous training and continuous education, and the docent program continues to grow and develop under her guidance. The Museum Professional of the Year award honors museum professionals who are involved professionally on the local, state and national level, demonstrate leadership in the profession and have worked to promote the goals of GAMG.
GAMG is dedicated to serving a diverse membership to establish a network, provide resources and promote professionalism. The mission of GAMG is to serve Georgia as a private, nonprofit museum and gallery association.
Museum Information
Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the Arch Foundation and the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on the East Campus of the University of Georgia. The address is 90 Carlton Street, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 30602-6719.
For more information, including hours of operation, see www.georgiamuseum.org or call 706/542-4662.
