The GLAMi Awards Committee announced the winners of the 2021 GLAMi Awards, honoring the best digital projects in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums community. 39 awards, including a Lifetime Service Award, were presented during a virtual ceremony at the annual MuseWeb conference. Selected by a distinguished panel of category judges and a diverse pool of jurors representing 20 countries, the prizes celebrate projects that reached at-home visitors unable to visit cultural institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic and that, in most cases, were managed or produced by staff members working from home.
GLAMi Gold awards were given to the Rijksmuseum website redesign (for Design), Becoming US (for Resources for General Audiences and Families), #19SuffrageStories (for Marketing), and Planet Word: The World’s First Voice Activated Museum of Language (for Interactive and Immersive).
In addition to the awards in each of six traditional categories, a new Special Jury Prize recognized projects that met the contemporary moment by offering thoughtful, deliberate, or inventive solutions to issues identified by the Committee as the most pressing concerns of the year: social justice and the pandemic.
The ceremony began with the presentation of a Lifetime Service Award to Titus Bicknell and Dr. Nancy Proctor, who in 2012 took over management of the MuseWeb conference (then Museums and the Web), along with current conference managers, Rich Cherry and Hiroko Kusano. They have been fierce and articulate advocates for the museum technology community since the dawn of the World Wide Web.
The list of winners, below, is also available on the GLAMi 2021 website, along with a full list of finalists. A showcase featuring more information about the winning and finalist projects will launch later this spring.
About the GLAMi Awards
The annual GLAMi Awards (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums Innovation)—formerly Best of the Web—celebrate innovative digital projects in the cultural heritage sector. The awards are selected from nominations made by the community by a distinguished panel of judges and announced each year at the MuseWeb annual conference. Read more about the GLAMis here.
2021 GLAMi Winners
LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD
Titus Bicknell and Nancy Proctor
DESIGN
Gold: Rijksmuseum Website, Rijksmuseum
Silver: Explore the Collections, Victoria and Albert Museum
Bronze: Van Gogh Museum Website, Van Gogh Museum
INTERACTIVE AND IMMERSIVE
Gold: Planet Word: The World’s First Voice-Activated Museum of Language, Planet Word
Silver: Escape from the Ballantine House, The Newark Museum of Art
Bronze: #Sonic Friday, National Science and Media Museum, Science Museum Group, in collaboration with the University of
Leicester, School of Museum Studies
Bronze: iThrive Sim: Lives in Balance, Reagan Presidential Library and Museum
Of Note: #everynamecounts—An Initiative of the Arolsen Archives, Arolsen Archives—International Center on Nazi Persecution
Of Note: Civil War 1864: A Virtual Reality Experience, American Battlefield Trust
Of Note: Norton Art+, Norton Museum of Art in partnership with Local Projects
Of Note: Ray Harryhausen at the National Galleries of Scotland, a multi-platform experience with Playdead and Smartly, The
National Galleries of Scotland in collaboration with Playdead and Smartify
MARKETING AND PROMOTION
Gold: #19SuffrageStories, Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, and Smithsonian Institution
Silver: Getty Museum Challenge, J. Paul Getty Trust
Bronze: Penguin Pierre Digital Campaign, Corning Museum of Glass
Of Note: Animal Crossing Art Generator, J. Paul Getty Trust
RESOURCES FOR GENERAL AUDIENCES AND FAMILIES
Gold: Becoming US, National Museum of American History
Silver: Duty to Country, Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project
Bronze: Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq Video Suite, J. Paul Getty Museum
Of Note: Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship, National Museum of American History
RESOURCES FOR SCHOLARS AND RESEARCHERS
Of Note: HMML.org Website Redesign, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
Of Note: (IM)Possible Counter-Archives, Museo Reina Sofia
Of Note: Engineering Historical Memory, Nanyang Technological University Singapore
TOOLS AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES
Of Note: Art Institute of Chicago Public API, Art Institute of Chicago
Of Note: Animal Crossing Art Generator, J. Paul Getty Trust
Of Note: Hue Museums Cultural Map and Directory, Hue Museums
Of Note: 2020 NPM Online Curator Project, National Palace Museum
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: PANDEMIC PIVOT
#Sonic Friday, National Science and Media Museum, Science Museum Group, in collaboration with the University of Leicester, School of Museum Studies
Art Break Live | Art, Mindfulness, and the Brain: A Learning Series for Pre-K to 12 Educators | BMA x NMWA Monthly Talk Show,
The Baltimore Museum of Art (for Art Break Live and Art, Mindfulness, and the Brain) and The Baltimore Museum of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts (for BMA x NMWA Monthly Talk Show)
Escape from the Ballantine House, The Newark Museum of Art
Getty Museum Challenge, J. Paul Getty Trust
Home is Where the Art Is, Cleveland Museum of Art
Interplay: Art Play for All, Akron Art Museum
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: SOCIAL JUSTICE
Becoming US, National Museum of American History
Burma’s Path to Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Hue Museums Cultural Map and Directory, Museum Hue
Muslims in Brooklyn, Center for Brooklyn History | The Brooklyn Public Library
Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship, National Museum of American History
Women’s Suffrage Stories You May Not Know, American Women’s History Initiative, Smithsonian Institution