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July 20, 2020

Canadian Museums Association 2020 awards honour museum professionals

OTTAWA, July 20, 2020 — The Canadian Museums Association (CMA) is pleased to announce today the recipients of the 2020 CMA Awards program.

Routinely presented during our national conference, this year’s public announcement was delayed by the pandemic. In consulting with our award recipients, we are delighted to share today’s news, so our winners may reference the awards in their own communications. Meanwhile, the CMA is currently exploring ways to more boldly and actively celebrate these remarkable achievements in 2020. We will keep you posted on our awards celebration plans as they develop.

We extend our gratitude to the following 2020 award recipients for their contributions to the Canadian museum sector.


Award of Distinguished Service

This award recognizes the accomplished career of a dedicated museum professional to the Canadian museum sector.

  • Wendy Fitch, Executive Director, Museums Association of Saskatchewan
  • Lisa Wolfe, Ross Farm Museum (New Ross, NS)


CMA Awards of Outstanding Achievement

This award recognizes exceptional museum projects in the following categories:

Marketing — For effective marketing tools, including advertising campaigns, public relations and promotional programs, which increase public awareness, and visitorship.

  • Les musées du Québec. Des émotions à partager. Société des musées du Québec (Montreal, QC)

New Media — For innovation in accessibility, engagement and participation by way of virtual publications, virtual exhibitions, online educational resources, social media initiatives and other technologies.

  • Personnages historiques virtuels [virtual historical figures], Francine Lelièvre, Pointe-à-Callière, Cité d’archéologie et d’histoire de Montreal (Montreal, QC)

Education — For programming that advances knowledge and understanding by reaching new audiences or enhancing existing ones.

  • Indigenous History in Burnaby Resources Guide, Burnaby Village Museum and the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Burnaby, BC)

Research – For research activities carried out in museums or applied to museum practice that contributes to the development of new knowledge and understanding. This category also includes publications and collection management practices.

For research in the art sector:

  • A-Health, Nathalie Bondil, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (Montreal, QC)

For research in the cultural heritage sector:

  • Museum Activism, Robert R. Janes (Co-editor, Routledge; Visiting Fellow, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, UK & Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Museum Management and Curatorship, Routledge) and Richard Sandell (Co-editor, Routledge; Professor of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, UK)

For research in the science sector:

  • Writing sound with a human ear: reconstructing Bell and Blake’s 1874 ear phonautograph, Tom Everrett, Ingenium (Ottawa, ON)

Exhibitions — For temporary, permanent, or traveling exhibitions that effectively and distinctively contribute to increase public understanding.

For exhibitions in the art sector (budget over $1 million):

  • Fugitives!, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Québec, QC)

For exhibitions in the cultural heritage sector (budget less than $1 million):

  • Body Language: Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (Vancouver, BC)

For exhibitions in the cultural heritage sector (budget over $1 million):

  • Shadows, Strings, and Other Things: the Enchanting Theatre of Puppets, Dr. Nicola Levell, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)


Museum Volunteer Award, in partnership with the Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums

This award recognizes individuals or groups who generously volunteer their time and commitment to a museum or related heritage institution and have made a significant impact within the museum community.

  • The Volunteers of l’Association canadienne d’histoire ferroviaire, Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum (Saint-Constant, QC).


Award of Excellence in Philanthropy

This award honours donors to Canadian museums who, through their imaginative understanding of how museums can be made more relevant and sustainable in their work, have proposed and funded ideas that have shifted the way communities can benefit from the rich resources these institutions hold in trust for them.

  • Irwin and Freda Browns, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)


ICOM Canada’s International Achievement Award

This award honours a Canadian museum professional who has demonstrated and promoted excellence in Canadian museology on an international scale, as well as the outstanding contribution of that professional’s knowledge and expertise towards the advancement and support of museology worldwide.

  • Nathalie Bondil, C.M., C.Q., Ch.O.M., Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (Montréal, QC)


Dr. Shirley L. Thomson Young Curators Award

This award provides high quality, enhanced learning experiences in art museums and galleries for young graduates to prepare them for curatorial careers in the visual arts.

  • Halifax’s Young Curator: A BIPOC Curatorial Internship at the MSVU Art Gallery, with support from Dalhousie Art Gallery and St. Mary’s University Art Gallery at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery (Halifax, NS)


Barbara A. Tyler Award in Museum Leadership

In the words of Barbara A. Tyler, this biennial award celebrates "the best leadership in museum management in Canada".

  • Dean Brinton, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of History and the Canadian War Museum


For more information:

Michaela Boutin-Bourque
Membership Services Officer
Canadian Museums Association
613-567-0099, ext. 233
mboutinbourque@museums.ca

Disponible en français.