The winners of this years annual awards from the Canadian Museums Association include the Wanuskewin Interpretive Centre in Saskatoon, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection near Toronto, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
The Wanuskewin Interpretive Centre, which has renewed its exhibition area as part of a $40-million expansion project, picked up one of three awards for outstanding achievement in exhibitions. Other winners in the same category were A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia, which comprised two Vancovuer exhibitions, one in Chinatown, and one at the Museum of Vancouver, and Meaningful Objects: A History of Craft in Quebec, a permanent exhibition at the Musée des métiers d’art du Québec in Montreal.
The award for audience outreach went to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia for its book, Autism Arts, which documents the gallery's arts program for youth living with autism spectrum disorder.
The award for social impact went to the Winnipeg Art Gallery for its new Inuit art centre, Qaumajuq, which houses the world's largest collection of contemporary Inuit art. The Galt Museum and Archives in Lethbridge, Alta., picked up an honourable mention for Voices of the Land, a digital project.
Awards for research went to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection for Uninvited, which examined the work of female contemporaries of the Group of Seven, and to Ève Lamoureux, for an inclusivity guide related to a research project into cultural mediation and diverse audiences.
The award for collection stewardship went to the Winnipeg Art Gallery / Qaumajuq for an initiative to rename artwork with more inclusive titles, the first of its kind in a Canadian gallery.
Awards for Distinguished Service went to Dean Beauche, who retired recently from the Allen Sapp Gallery in North Battleford, Sask.; Kirstin Clausen, currently executive director of Heritage BC.; and Guy Tremblay, who has retired from the Musée régional de la Côte-Nord in Sept-Îles, Que.
Awards recognizing volunteer service went to the volunteer guides at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for their work with disadvantaged seniors, and to Clifford Pereira, who noticed discrepancies in the labeling of African items at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC and led a hunt for information to decolonize some 2,700 items.
The President’s Award went to Anita Price, who retired recently as the executive director of the Association of Nova Scotia Museums.
Indigenous scholar Gerald McMaster was named as a new fellow of the association.
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Source: Canadian Museums Association