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PA MUSEUMS 2027 SPECIAL ACHIEVMENT AWARDS - CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
PA Museums invites nominations for our 2027 Special Achievement Awards Program.
PA Museums’ awards program is designed to:
- Serve as public recognition of staff and volunteers doing exemplary work;
- Encourage institutions to establish and maintain standards of excellence;
- Provide a vehicle to promote institutional achievement and individual professional success;
- Reinforce case statements attesting to the quality of your programs in grant applications, fundraising materials, or sponsorship proposals; and
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Publicly honor awardees with peers and invited guests at a special awards ceremony during PA Museums’ statewide conference.
The deadline to submit awards nominations is October 15, 2026.
Nominations must be submitted through the appropriate online forms.
Institutional Award Nomination Form
Individual Award Nomination Form
Incomplete nominations will not be accepted and reviewed by the Awards Committee. Submitted applications become the property of PA Museums. PA Museums reserves the right to use application content in promoting award recipients and the awards program.
Nominations will be reviewed, and awardees will be notified by February 2027. Formal recognition of awardees will be given on the PA Museums website, in the PA Museums e-newsletter Tapestry, and at an awards ceremony held during our annual conference. The 2027 annual conference is scheduled to take place in Carlisle, PA on April 11th and 12th.
Eligibility:
- A nominee for an award must be a member of PA Museums.
- Anyone may submit a nomination, including staff of the nominated organization.
- Nominations for joint projects may be submitted if all major partners are PA Museums’ members.
- PA Museums’ business affiliate members and individual members who are full- or part-time consultants are eligible for an award when the project has benefited a PA Museums’ institutional member and has been submitted jointly with that member.
- Groups of volunteers are not eligible for individual achievement awards.
Primary consideration will be given to projects completed within 12 months before the nomination deadline. The review panel may also consider nominations for exceptional programs or individual volunteer activities extending over a longer period of time. If your organization won a PA Museums Special Achievement Award in 2026, you may nominate a project this year that is significantly different from your past awarded project. Awardees should also be willing to participate in a webinar for PA Museums in 2027 about their project if requested. Awardees should agree to register for our annual conference and plan to accept their awards on April 11, 2027 in person at the evening event.
To check the status of your membership, please contact Rusty Baker, Executive Director, PA Museums, at rusty.baker@pamuseums.org or 1.717.280.3822.
Institutional and Individual Award categories
Institutional Awards
Institutional Awards recognize outstanding and innovative projects that have provided an exemplary contribution to the museum, public history, or cultural tourism field in Pennsylvania. A nomination may be made for any project or best practice that serves to raise the bar of excellence in the field. PA Museums will be judging nominations in categories. There will be a dropdown menu on the institutional award nomination form to select your category. If you are unsure which category to select, please contact Rusty Baker to discuss your questions and help identify the correct category for your nomination.
Some examples of projects are:
· An exhibit and related interpretive programming that presents an event/topic, or tells a story in an innovative and compelling fashion.
· A successful cultural tourism program with marketing and media components that resulted in community development and collaboration.
· A publication or a school program that reaches and engages a previously underserved audience.
· A model earned-income program that has strengthened fiscal independence.
· A website providing greater public access to your programs and collections.
Some examples of a best practice may be:
· Exemplary implementation of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice policies and practices.
· A creative outreach initiative to broaden audiences (both visitors and online).
· An exemplary or new housekeeping routine.
· A state-of-the-art volunteer or docent-training program.
· An innovative collections conservation or interpretive plan.
Individual Awards of Merit
Individual Awards of Merit recognize the lifetime achievements of career professionals, outstanding leadership the museum field, and accomplishments as volunteers or emerging museum professionals. These awards may only be given to an individual once in their lifetime in any particular category.
Special Award Categories
PA Museums may award Special Awards (President’s Award, Director’s Award, Legislative Award, Institutional Advancement Award) at the discretion of the Awards Committee.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Institutional Awards
Pennsylvania is privileged to have more than so many cultural institutions, museums, and historical organizations of all sizes and disciplines. Projects are evaluated on their own merits and within the context of the organization’s own institutional capacity. Photos should be submitted for all nominations, and because our committee members may be unfamiliar with your work, we encourage nominees to include multiple photos. PA Museums will judge nominations in categories. These categories will be:
· Exhibitions - for exhibitions of objects and interpretive or interactive elements that effectively and distinctively contribute to public understanding of a subject. Nominations for exhibitions should include at least 3 photographs as supporting documentation.
· Museum education, History programs, and community outreach program - this includes programming for learners of all ages and outreach activities to different community segments
· Anniversaries, Commemorations, and similar special events - for major community history milestones, institutional anniversaries, and historical commemorations of other significant historical events at the state and national level.
· Conservation, Collections, and Preservation Projects - projects around objects in collections, collections care and storage, and the preservation of buildings are included in this category
· Design, Publications, and Media - this includes brochures, catalogs, books, rebranding initiatives, and websites. Nominations in this category should include clear samples of the work as supporting documentation.
The PA Museums’ Awards Committee evaluates nominations using the following three key scoring criteria.
Quality of the Project, Process or Service (0-40 points)
How was this project implemented? What was innovative about this project for your organization? How is the project an outstanding example of this type of activity? What are the new ideas involved and how did you find them?
Audience, Access and Public Engagement (0-40 points)
How did this project or practice benefit the public? How have you measured that impact? What audiences were targeted, how did you engage them, and what parts of your community became involved with your institution as a result? How did the project increase access to the institution’s exhibits, programs, or collections? Can you provide attendance numbers and how did those numbers compare to past numbers?
Management (0-20 points)
Was the project well planned and managed? Did completing the project relate to the mission? Were you able to implement the project at the highest level possible, given your staff and budget size? Is the nomination clear and complete? Did you provide required supporting documentation?
Individual Awards
The nomination form for individuals will include a dropdown menu to select only one of these categories:
- Lifetime achievement - Awarded at the end or near end of a career for professionals recognizing many accomplishments and the completion transformational projects at their institution(s).
- Leadership - This includes leadership at the executive level as well as particular areas of museum work below the executive level.
- Volunteer service - This includes board service, docents, and volunteers in all areas
- Emerging museum professionals - The National Emerging Museum Professionals Network, American Alliance of Museums, and PA Museums define emerging museum professionals as those with ten of fewer years working in the field.
PA Museums’ Awards Committee evaluates nominations using the following three key scoring criteria.
Quality of the Leadership, Professional Practice, or Contributions to the Museum Field (0-45 points)
What makes this person’s work stand out? What could others learn from his or her example?
Impact of the Individual Effort (0-45 points)
How has this person’s leadership, professional work, or volunteer service helped audiences or the institution? How has his or her work increased the institution’s capacity or advanced its place in a community?
Completeness of the Nomination (0-10 points)
Is the nomination clear and complete? Did you provide the required supporting documentation?
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