2021 Museum Exhibit Award Winners Announced | Wisconsin Historical Society

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2021 Museum Exhibit Award Winners Announced

The 1906 Cambridge Historic School Museum and the Neville Public Museum have received the 2021 Museum Exhibit Awards.

2021 Museum Exhibit Award Winners Announced | Wisconsin Historical Society

The 1906 Cambridge Historic School Museum has received the 2021 Museum Exhibit Award (Budget Less than $5,000) for its exhibition "The Suffrage Movement in Cambridge." The Neville Public Museum has received the 2021 Museum Exhibit Award (Budget Greater than $5,000) for its exhibition "Generations Gallery."

About the Exhibits

The 1906 Cambridge Historic School Museum's exhibit "The Suffrage Movement in Cambridge" featured the first 41 local women to vote in 1920. Along with a brief story for each woman, the display also included information on suffrage activity happening in the community from 1910 until suffrage rights were extended to women with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The exhibit included background information on the national movement along with supporting artifacts such as dresses and hats. The museum also carried out an active social media campaign to share these stories of first-time voters in Cambridge, along with images and supporting historical documents and photographs from the exhibit.

The Neville Public Museum's "Generations Gallery" is an almost 8,000-square-foot gallery that replaced the former permanent gallery "On the Edge of the Inland Sea." The gallery is a permanent space with changeable thematic sections and features more artifacts and new stories, while reimagining a few old favorites. This new permanent gallery involves visitors in exploring the museum's vast collection through a variety of themes and the stories of the people of Northeast Wisconsin.

The Neville Public Museum conducted extensive formative evaluation with community members to determine how to renovate the space in a way that kept community favorites while upgrading the display techniques and interpretation. One goal of the renovation was to ensure relevancy and help visitors connect with the exhibition themes and content. The exhibit does this by telling new stories, sharing old stories from new perspectives, and increasing accessibility through efforts such as multi-lingual label text in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali.

About the Award

Two awards for historical exhibits on Wisconsin themes are offered each year: one for an exhibition budget of $5,000 or less and one for an exhibition budget greater than $5,000. Each award is given to the organization that creates an exhibit that meets the award criteria and, in the opinion of the judges, made the most valuable contribution to public understanding of Wisconsin's past during the preceding calendar year.

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