Award Recipients

Award Recipients for 2022

Awards of Excellence were presented to:

Canadian Museum of Human Rights
Carey Newman, artist
Manitoba Museum
Transcona Museum

Awards of Merit were awarded to:

Thomas Heine
Scott Young

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, artist Carey Newman, and the Manitoba Museum were awarded an Award of Excellence for their collaboration on the Witness Blanket installation. The Blanket is made up of over 800 items gathered from sites and survivors of Indian residential schools from every region in Canada. The items were cared for under a shared stewardship agreement between artist Carey Newman and the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. The project was led by the Manitoba Museum.

(More on the Witness Blanket)

Every year the Transcona Museum creates an exhibit for a week long display at Kildonan Place Shopping Centre in honour of Remembrance Day. This year the Museum received an Award of Excellnce for creating Stories of Remembrance: from Hometown to Frontlines. Each of the 20 banners making up the exhibit are illustrated with firsthand quotes, historical context, photographs, and images of archival documents and artifacts.

Scott Young is an astronomer and informal science educator at the Manitoba Museum and the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Firchburg, Massachusetts. Scott was awarded an Award of Merit for creating Dome@Home, a weekly, live-streamed program open to anyone with an internet connection. Star gazers could listen and watch as Scott talked about a current cosmic event and they could also make comments or ask questions using a chat function. People from all over the province, Canada, and even overseas tuned in to watch, enjoy, participate, and learn.

(More on Dome@Home).

Thomas Heine received an Award of Merit for creating a collaboration between seven museums and creating a guidebook promoting the museums and offering an interesting weekend tour for visitors. A few years ago, Thomas Heine had an idea. There were seven museums within 100 km of each other in his area that would make a nice weekend tour for visitors. Thomas then put together a travel guide with maps and information on the museums.

Award Recipients for 2021

AMM Awards for 2021 were presented virtually during our Annual General Meeting (December 12, 2021) as COVID meant we couldn't hold our annual Awards Banquet. Regardless of the changed circumstances, we are very pleased to announce the winners of an AMM Award for 2021-2022:

Award of Excellence

Fort Garry Horse Museum & Archives (FGHMA) and Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) for their collaboration on the Mennonites at War exhibit.

Mennonites at War, a temporary exhibit created for display at MHV in 2021, explores the ways war, violence, and the threat of military participation have affected Mennonites over their nearly 500-year history. The exhibit was created by MHV in partnership with the FGHMA, who offered curatorial expertise, research resources, artifact loans, and countless hours providing contextual information for the military-themed sections of the exhibit. In this way, the exhibit provides a model for how museums with very different mandates and constituencies can successfully partner together on a project. The exhibit features artifacts from both MHV’s and FGHMA’s collections, as well as other private and public collections. All together, the exhibit brings together the individual stories of over 30 individual Mennonites and their complicated responses in the face of war and violence.

Award Recipients for 2020

AMM Awards for 2020 were presented virtually during our Annual General Meeting (December 16, 2020) as COVID meant we couldn't hold our annual Awards Banquet. Regardless of the changed circumstances, we are very pleased to announce the winners of an AMM Award for 2020-2021:

Awards of Excellence

Manitoba Electrical Museum & Education Centre -
Relocation Project.
The Museum was challenged with a double move for their warehouse of extra exhibits. The Shop volunteers, under the direction of Wayne DeJaegher, moved all the items to the first warehouse, only to be told to again relocate. The efforts were completed by less than 20 workers. After organizing the new premise with shelving, each item was accessioned, catalogued, photographed and organized, to the standards as set out by the AMM. This was performed behind the scenes and with minimal attention. The results are a well organized warehouse that could be the envy of any museum.

Musetoba (Manitoba Collective Access Database)
The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library, Dalnavert Museum and Visitors' Centre, Ogniwo Polish Museum Society Inc, Transcona Museum and the Association of Manitoba Museums, participated in the creation of a new collections management database for museums to use utilizing Collective Access. Although started in 2018, this project completed Phase one this year. With a program that can be customized to the individual museum, it is hoped that it can be offered to all Manitoba Museums at a reasonable cost.

If you know of a museum, person or people who deserve recognition for the work they're doing nominate them for an Award of Excellence or Award of Merit.

Alexandra Kroeger, Jenna Klassen and Andrea Dyck accepting an Award of Excellence on behalf of the Mennonite Heritage Village from Randy James

Suzanne Wastle and Colleen Kruchak accepting an Award of Merit from Randy James

Alanna Horejda accepting an Award of Excellence on behalf of the Transcona Museum from Randy James

Monique Brandt presenting Rachael Erickson with an Award of Merit.

Here's more on the this year's award recipients:

Congratulations to the Award Winners of 2018!

Award winners from 2017

Award of Merit

Inés Bonacossa, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Dalnavert Museum & Visitors’ Centre, Winnipeg

In recognition for her outstanding volunteer work at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Dalnavert Museum and Visitors’ Centre.

At the Winnipeg Art Gallery Inés has hosted and led hundreds of public tours as well as many educational youth and adult programs. She has also played an integral role on their extended education team; as an avid researcher, a committed team player and an outstanding tour guide. Her tours were consistently well received with written and verbal praise or accolades from their guests. Inés works hard at delivering well-researched tours to make the exhibitions more accessible to visitors.
Read more...

Award of Excellence

Medd House Museum, Winnipegosis

For the work that went into preserving and maintaining this important piece of Winnipegosis’s history.

The Medd House is one of the last two-storey houses in Winnipegosis that were built prior to the inception of Winnipegosis in 1915. It was built in 1900 for George Bellamy and was purchased by Dr. A. E. Medd in 1914, when he married Mary Agnes McArthur. They raised five children in the house, but it also served as a doctor’s office and the town’s first hospital with operations being performed on the family dining or kitchen table.
Read more...

Award winners from 2016

Grand Marais Heritage Committee for their East Beaches Heritage Wing Exhibition.

Manitoba Agricultural Museum for Harvesting Hope: a World Record to Help the Hungry

East Beaches, Grand Marais Manitoba Agricultural Museum, Austin

Grand Marais Heritage Committee for their East Beaches Heritage Wing Exhibition
This exhibition is an excellent example of meticulous research, innovative community engagement, and is accessible and appealing to visitors.

The exhibits tell the unique story of the people of the East Beaches and how they adapted to the changes in the local economy from subsistence resource use, to a service industry economy. At the centre of what became a thriving tourism industry, was Grand Beach, a resort built by the railway. The railway left in 1961, taking much of the community’s fame and fortune with it.

Winners from 2014!

Congratulations to Pauline Riley, Interlake Tourism Association, and The Manitoba Museum for being this year's Award recipients.

Award of Merit

Pauline Riley - for her relentless efforts in fundraising, and other activities, on behalf of the Winnipegosis Museum.

Pauline Riley accepting the Award of Merit from Heather Beerling

Award of Excellence

Interlake Tourism Association - for their assistance in helping 10 museums in the Interlake Region to put together the successful traveling exhibit Unlocked: Stories from the Interlake.

Gail McDonald accepting the award from Matthew Komus on behalf of the Interlake Tourism Association.
The Manitoba Museum - for their incredible school programs during Wrapped: The Mummy of Pesed exhibit.

Anya Moodie-Foster accepting the award from Heather Beerling on behalf of The Manitoba Museum.

Please see the M ed ia Release for more information.