OMA Award Spotlight - Front Exhibition Co.
Recognizing excellence in Ohio museums during Arts and Humanities Month
To help celebrate October as Arts and Humanities Month, and to kick-off the call for nominations for this year's OMA awards, we'll be highlighting our 2022 OMA Award of Achievement winners throughout the month with our OMA Award Spotlight. We are featuring these Award Winner Spotlights during Arts and Humanities Month to help champion the amazing projects, programs and professionals that make Ohio's museum community strong.
The Awards of Achievement are presented to reflect the outstanding quality and caliber of work by Ohio museums and their professionals in two categories: Institutional Achievement Awards and Individual Achievement Awards.
Nominations for these awards are incredibly detailed. This in-depth process helps to illustrate how these institutions and individuals have gone “above and beyond” the normal call of duty to support their institution, serve their public and advance the cause of the museum community.
Each year, the review panel is overwhelmed by the outstanding projects, innovative programming and dedication to our field as exhibited in each of the institutional and individual nominations. Congratulations again to each of our 2022 award winners!
Today, we'll be featuring our winner for the 2022 award for Best Community Partnership over $500,000.
Front Exhibition Co. - FRONT Accessibility Partnership Initiative
When planning for their second edition triennial in 2022, the FRONT Exhibition Company developed an innovative Accessibility Partnership Initiative to ensure that the exhibition hub would be inclusive, accessible, and welcoming to visitors of all abilities.
Titled Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows in homage to a poem by Langston Hughes, FRONT’s second edition triennial included projects, programs, and performances by 100+ artists at over 30 sites across the region. Over the course of the exhibition period, FRONT drew hundreds of thousands of visitors to museums and program sites across Northeast Ohio.
As both an exhibition hub that would attract international attention and as a visitor center that would welcome thousands, the team was committed to ensuring that the FRONT PNC Exhibition Hub at Transformer Station would be inclusive and welcoming to all artists and visitors.
FRONT prioritized community collaboration to make this happen, centering around an ambitious partnership with the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities and Art Therapy Studio to exhibit the work of artists with disabilities and introducing accessibility improvements and adaptive tools such as Braille labels and tactile graphics for those visiting the exhibit. FRONT also worked closely with a group of art therapists to present a series of free, inclusive, therapeutic art workshops in conjunction with the exhibit.
FRONT’s initiative highlights the power of community partnerships to greatly expand public access to museums. The value of this collaboration is exemplified in the statements of the project partners themselves, with Janet Keeler of the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities saying, “we view this partnership as a role model as we work to develop future partnerships in our community,” and Art Therapy Studio’s Michelle Epps noting, “FRONT was an enthusiastic, receptive, and responsible partner, listening to accessibility concerns, and more importantly acting on these concerns.”
Did your museum have an innovative and impactful collaboration during 2023 season? Be sure to nominate it for the 2023 award for Best Community Partnership! Learn more here.