Creativity. Innovation. Imagination.
Those were the qualities guiding the participants of AAM’s new annual writing competition, the first annual 2005 Brooking Paper on Creativity in Museums. Invited to think about different and experimental ways of operating in museums, the 17 entrants presented a variety of topics, from the straightforward to the complex, from the practical to the theoretical.
In choosing the three winning papers, the judges focused on three excellent examples of innovation; central to the decision-making process was the desire to reward ideas that can lead to new ways of thinking about the museum field.
The judges for the 2005 competition were Ann Fortescue, director of education and visitor services, Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center; Vasundhara Prahbu, deputy director, interpretation and education, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.; and Jane Lusaka, editor-in-chief, Museum News, and assistant director of publications at AAM.
The competition is funded by Dolores Brooking, professor of arts administration at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and former director of education at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.
The first-prize essay was awarded $1,000 and published in the May/June 2005 issue of Museum News; two honorable mentions also were awarded.
Click here for information about how to enter the competition for the 2006 Brooking Paper on Creativity in Museums.
Here are the winning essays along with comments from the judges.
