The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia received two awards from the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) Awards Committee in 2019 for its outstanding work.
The awards included a silver award in the over $25,000 category from the SEMC Excellence in Exhibitions Competition for “Vernacular Modernism: The Photography of Doris Ulmann,” organized by former curator of American art Sarah Kate Gillespie. The museum also received a Technology Competition award in digital marketing for its website redesign. The awards ceremony took place at the annual SEMC conference awards luncheon in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday, October 23.
“Vernacular Modernism” was the first comprehensive survey of the work of the 20th-century photographer Doris Ulmann and was on view at the museum from August to November of 2018. The exhibition included all phases of Ulmann’s often-overlooked work, from her New York studio portraits to her depictions of rural residents of Appalachia and photographs of the African American and Gullah communities of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. This award is a comprehensive one that honors exhibition design and programming as well as underlying concept.
In 2019, the museum’s department of communications collaborated with Athens, Georgia, design and web creation firm The Adsmith to launch an extensive redesign of the museum’s website. These updates include more streamlined content, photos and navigation tools, digital access to the museum’s collections database and seamless adaptability to mobile screens, making the site more accessible as well as more functional. The museum’s blog is now hosted directly on the site for easier access and use, and components like “You in the Museum,” which features user-generated content, were added.
Director of communications Hillary Brown said, “We are so pleased with this recognition, our first technology award ever from SEMC. Redesigning a website to make it more usable and functional for visitors is no easy task, and we could not have done it without the thoughtful input and design skills of the team at the Adsmith.”
Museum director William U. Eiland said, “We at the Georgia Museum of Art have been extraordinarily pleased to have had our exhibitions and publications receive several awards recently from peer professional organizations. It is certainly satisfying to be recognized for the quality of our work, but it is especially encouraging to have our regional and national colleagues award our efforts. These honors are reflections of the dedication, the hard work and the high standards of the staff in developing and presenting our projects. Their commitment to our mission inspires me, as do these awards.”
SEMC is a nonprofit membership association of museums, museum staff, independent professionals and corporate professionals focused on the southeastern United States. It works to improve the exchange of ideas and information within the region’s art community and provide educational and professional development opportunities for members.
Andrea Giordano
Michael Lachowski
