Cimam seeks nominations for Outstanding Museum Practice Award

Nominations are open for the Outstanding Museum Practice Award 2024.

The prize is overseen by the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (Cimam), an affiliated organisation of the International Council of Museums.

Launched in 2021, the award is dedicated to promoting excellence in innovation in modern and contemporary art museums, and encouraging public accessibility, exchange and sustainability within the sector.

The prize aims to give greater visibility to practices that, independent of scale and level of resources, stand out in terms of their relevance and connection to people, communities and context.

This can include innovative approaches to core activities such as conservation, education, collection, exhibition programmes, publications, research, public access, communication, governance, and sustainability.

Nominations are welcome from across the contemporary art sector. Museum professionals may nominate their own museum or propose another museum or particular museum practice to be recognised.

Examples of best practice include:

• Governance practices that reinforce the value of the museum’s people and culture and consistently support the museum’s mission, vision, and purpose.
• Innovative acquisition policies and ways of presenting modern and contemporary art collections and exhibitions that are relevant to the audiences they serve, their scale, and context.
• Innovation in public, educational, communication, and accessibility programs for different age groups, community diversity, and narrative approaches.
• Innovation in national and international partnership programs between museums to promote more sustainable museum practices regarding the itinerancy of exhibitions and the education and outreach of audiences.
• Innovation in interpreting current standards of museum practice with a vision of a socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable future.
• Innovative museum practices that address changing social and cultural realities to ensure relevance to the public for museums of the future.

Exhibitions, awards and one-off events are excluded from the criteria.

“We invite you to collaborate with us to identify and celebrate outstanding museum practices that inspire you,” says Cimam.

“Whether they are innovative ways of working, transformative initiatives, or impactful community engagements, we want to hear about them, and we're counting on you to help us identify them.”

Cimam membership is not required for a museum to be nominated or to submit a nomination.

The call for nominations is open until 30 August 2024. For more information visit Cimam’s website.