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 exemplary creativity in museum educational programming. To be eligible, the program must have clearly articulated goals/outcomes, be designed to achieve the goals/outcomes with the intended audiences, have concrete evidence of success through an evaluation process, have been presented three consecutive years, and reflect institutional commitment. Programs that clearly address one or more of the principles outlined in the AAM’s policy statement on public education, Excellence and Equity, will be given special consideration.

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 Programming 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/award-for-excellence-in-programming/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 are featured in the Annual Award Issue of AAM’s Museum Magazine
• Awardees receive recognition in EdCom’s e-newsletter
• 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 display in the most public of spaces

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

Recipients

2020

• History Unfolded
  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

2019

• Classroom-in-Residence
  Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2018

• High School Apprenticeship Program
  New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA

2017

• Shedd Underwater Robotics 
  John G. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, IL

2016 (tie)

• Subway Sleuths 
  The NY Transit Museum, Brooklyn, NY

• Students Opposing Slavery International Summit 
  President Lincoln’s Cottage, Washington, DC

2015

• Native American Fellowship Program
  Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA

2014

• Young Researchers Collaborative
  Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL

2013

• Early Elementary Science Partnership (E2SP)
  The Field Museum, Chicago, IL

2012

• Wildlife Career Ladder
  Bronx Zoo, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY