2023 AAM Awards Update: To better highlight and celebrate the museum professional community in all its diversity, we are in the process of redesigning an awards program that aligns with AAM’s strategic framework and centers equity and inclusion. As part of this process, this award program is temporarily on hold while we pilot a few updates to three other awards programs in 2023.

Please note for 2021 EdCom will be only offering the EdCom Award for Innovation and Education–Pandemic Edition.

This award recognizes an individual who demonstrates exemplary service to the public through the practice of education in a museum. The person’s contributions may be through teaching, program development, community organizing, writing, research and/or professional activities. Awardees meet, establish, and promote the highest professional standards and are recognized as leaders in their field. Eligible nominees will be knowledgeable, demonstrate creativity, and succeed in stretching the boundaries defining the parameters of good practice.

Nominations are now closed.

There is a $25 fee for each entry. This fee goes towards the production of the awards and towards paying for one ticket for the Excellence in Practice Award winner to the EdCom Luncheon where the awards are given out at the AAM Annual Meeting. Your nomination will not be considered complete until the fee has been paid. To pay the fee, visit http://ww2.aam-us.org/about-us/grants-awards-and-competitions/excellence-in-practice/application-fee. This link will reappear after you submit the nomination form below.

All EdCom Award Recipients receive the following recognition:

• Honored at the AAM Annual Meeting
• Awardees receive recognition in EdCom’s e-newsletter
• Awardees featured on AAM’s Alliance Blog
• Awardees may be featured in a future national webinar or article on best practices in museum education
• Awardees may be featured in a “Best Practices in Museum Education” panel at the AAM Annual Meeting
• All awardees receive an award, perfect for public display

Questions? (no award submissions please) Please contact Brooke Rosenblatt, EdCom Awards Lead (rosenblattb (a) si (dot) edu).

Recipients

2020

• Michelle Tovar, Holocaust Museum Houston

2019

• David Rios, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, NY

2018

• Maria Marable Bunch, National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, DC

2016

• Jane Burrell, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California

2015

• Suzy Harris, Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama

2014

• Leah Melber, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago

2013

• Susan Nichols, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C

2012

• Paula Gangopadhyay, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan