31 October 2006

Museum, Educational Communities Recognize Media Effectiveness

Annual MUSE awards showcase digital innovation in media projects

 

Visitors look over the Newseum's "Front Pages" exhibit (© AP Images)

By Jeffrey C. Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The MUSE Awards, presented annually by the American Association of Museums for the best digital media projects in the museum and educational world, showcase innovative Web sites.

The award winners are among approximately 17,000 museums in the United States, and “most museums of any size now have a Web presence,” according to Jason Hall, the director of government and media relations at the American Association of Museums in Washington. (See related article.)

The Library of Congress won a silver medal in the 2006 MUSE competition for its interactive exhibit Churchill and the Great Republic, which was judged “elegant and professional.” This exhibition allows students to explore Churchill’s relationships with U.S. presidents and his role in World War II. “From the look-and-feel, the content, the method of delivery, and the navigation, this Web site stands well above many in existence today,” the MUSE judges said.

The MUSE judges awarded an honorable mention in 2006 to the National Constitution Center for Abraham Lincoln’s Crossroads, which puts students in President Lincoln’s shoes as he makes 13 key decisions. The interactive exhibit can be played in a rich media broadband version or a low-bandwidth HTML version.

MUSE also honored the Newseum for its daily Web exhibit Today’s Front Pages, which presents the front pages of 526 newspapers from 51 countries. “The Web site successfully expresses the dynamic nature of news with global circumspection while assuring that visitors see their own world in new and unexpected ways,” the judges said.

Campfire Stories with George Catlin, a gold-medal winner in 2003, is a creation of the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum. Catlin was a 19th century American painter who visited more than 140 tribes and painted more than 325 portraits and 200 scenes of American Indian life, according to the Web site. Using Catlin’s work and audio commentary by experts, the site explores such themes as the conflict between European and American Indian concepts of land ownership.

The award-winning exhibits are available for review on the Web sites of their host organizations:

• Churchill and the Great Republic;

• Abraham Lincoln’s Crossroads;

• Today's Front Pages; and

• Campfire Stories.

Additional information on the MUSE Awards is available on the Web site of the American Association of Museums’ Media and Technology Committee.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)