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GALLERY AND MUSEUM ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

The Gallery and Museum Achievement Awards are presented

by Museum and Gallery Services Queensland to honour the

achievements of Queensland individuals and organisations in

striving towards excellence.

The awards aim to:

• encourage continuous improvement and development ofgalleries, museums and related cultural organisations

• enhance the profile of galleries, museums and relatedcultural organisations in local and wider communities

• inspire and recognise best practice

• recognise and encourage the contribution made byindividuals to their organisations and to the gallery andmuseum sector

THE GAMAA CATEGORIES:ORGANISATIONS

• STAFF OF 5 OR MORE *• STAFF OF UNDER 5 *• VOLUNTEER RUN

* Full-time equivalent

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THE GAMAA CATEGORIES:INDIVIDUALS

• PAID• VOLUNTEER

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ELIGIBILITY1. Must be located within Queensland2. Organisations must be one of the

following:• Public, non-commercial museum or gallery• Indigenous Keeping Place or Cultural Centre• Libraries where the nominated activity has an outcome related to

exhibitions or museum practice• Arts Councils where the nominated activity has an outcome related

to exhibitions or museum practice• Artist-Run Spaces where the nominated activity has an outcome

related to exhibitions or museum practice

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ELIGIBILITY

3. Individuals can be paid or volunteerstaff working in any of theorganisations listed

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ORGANISATIONS…

1. Can be self-nominated2. Or nominated by another organisation

(including local councils)3. Or nominated by another person

(including members of the public)

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ORGANISATIONS

The nominated activity must have been completed, or

have reached an identifiable or significant milestone,

within twelve months prior to the nomination closing date.

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ORGANISATIONS

Examples of activities that might be nominated:

Exhibitions Public programsEducation programs ResearchPublications EventsCollection management Community buildingMarketing initiatives Operational initiatives

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ORGANISATIONS

You can also nominate collaborative projectsbetween two or more organisations.

One organisation would take responsibility for the nominationand act as the contact. All participating organisations would be

acknowledged and promoted in GAMAA material.

In categories where prizes are awarded, the collaborating organisations would beresponsible for deciding any split.

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INDIVIDUALS…

1. Must be nominated by anotherperson

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INDIVIDUALS

The nomination should demonstrate how theindividual’s contribution meets the Award criteria.

The work of individual nominees may date backmany years.

FOR ORGANISATIONS,THREE SELECTION CRITERIAMUST BE ADDRESSED

1. INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP2. OUTCOMES IN THE COMMUNITY3. BEST PRACTICE

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SELECTION CRITERIA 1:INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP

The nomination should provide evidence of the organisation’screativity, originality, vision andleadership.

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Examples of innovative practice and leadership:

• Delivering a ground-breaking project to a successful outcome• Taking up new ideas or new technologies• Finding creative ways to improve access and equity for

audiences/participants• Finding creative ways to educate audiences and encourage life-

long learning• Working with communities or audiences that the organisation

has not worked with before• Creating partnerships that improve the organisation’s practice• Providing inspiration as a role model for others• Leading others to implement new ideas, directions or initiatives

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A Winning Example2004 Winner in the Organisation category of Staff of 1 to 6:The Gold Coast City Art Gallery produced a two-part exhibition and series ofevents: All that Glitters…contemporary visions of the Gold Coast and All thatGlitters…50 years of Gold Coast kitsch and memories. The project provided anopportunity for reflection and focus on the Gold Coast – one of the most rapidlyevolving communities in Australia, and one that is perceived to produce little ofcultural value. The exhibition showed the depth of critical and creative thinkingand making that has occurred on the Gold Coast in the second half of the 20th

century. The projects gave younger people and local residents an insight to thecharacter of the place, and encouraged people to come forward with theirmemories and objects. The GAMAA judges found this project to be particularlyinnovative both in its curatorial approach and in its efforts to connect with adiverse local community. The exhibitions and associated events were wellexecuted and successfully connected social history and contemporary visual artelements. In doing so they demonstrated the potential of a combined museumand gallery collection for the Gold Coast, providing a valuable model for howother communities might approach contemporary heritage and collecting.

SELECTION CRITERIA 2:OUTCOMES IN THE COMMUNITY

The nomination should provide evidence of how the organisation’s activity has enriched the community.

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Examples of outcomes in the community:“Community” can mean the general community in your region, or

can mean a specific group within the community (such as youth,older people, people from a particular cultural/ethnicbackground, people who are isolated or disadvantaged)

• Enriching the cultural life of the community• Increasing community participation or developing new

audiences• Delivering successful outcomes for specific groups in

the community• Having an impact on the social or economic life of the

community

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A Winning Example2006 Winner in the Organisation category of Staff of 1 to 6:The Fully Sick!!! Youth Public Art Project was developed by the BundabergArts Centre to bring together several requests for mural projects from thecommunity. The Centre engaged young people throughout Bundaberg in theproject in a bid to develop better relations with youth audiences and toprovide skills development for the youth and artists involved. They developeda number of significant partnerships for the project, ranging from a suburbanprogress association to organisations that were already actively engagingwith youth communities such as juvenile crime prevention programs,Indigenous youth services and local visual arts high school students. Theproject attracted interest from the general population during the period thatthe artists and participants were working on site. The GAMAA judgesrecognised the Centre's achievement in working with youth beyond the wallsof the gallery; for identifying a strategy that will develop future audiences; andfor using community networks to find the right people for the project.

SELECTION CRITERIA 3:BEST PRACTICE

The nomination should provide evidence of how the organisation’s activity has established new standardsof practice or significantly raised existing standards.

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Examples of best practice:

• Establishing new standards of practice that are able to besustained by the organisation

• Significantly raising the organisation’s existing standards(new processes, systems, displays, programs)

• Increasing the organisation’s professionalism and qualityof delivery

• Improving the skills/knowledge of staff and/or volunteers• Improving the organisation’s relationships with its major

stakeholders

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A Winning Example2005 Winner in the Organisation category of Volunteer Run:The Mulgrave Settlers Museum is open six days a week, is staffed by a team of 20volunteers, and comprises an archival room, library, workroom, storage room andexhibitions area. The Museum introduced the concept of Significance to theassessment of its collections and uses the Significance statement when makingdecisions about accessioning new objects. The Museum developed extensivepublic programs with a series of annual changing exhibitions. One of these,Beacons of Faith – religious traditions of Gordonvale residents, was the first cross-cultural project of its kind initiated by a community museum in North Queensland.The exhibition encompassed the history of every religious and spiritualorganisation in the Mulgrave area, such as the Chinese and Sikh communities andlocal Indigenous groups. The GAMAA judges commended the Museum as amodel for other community based museums in Queensland. The Museum’sdedication to gathering the social history of the district, its well executed programswithin the context of its limited resources, as well as its undertaking of difficulttasks such as the digitisation of the collection and the de-accessioning of non-relevant objects were acknowledged as a serious commitment to best practice.

FOR INDIVIDUALS,FOUR SELECTION CRITERIAMUST BE ADDRESSED

1. INNOVATION2. OUTCOMES IN THE COMMUNITY3. BEST PRACTICE4. LEADERSHIP

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SELECTION CRITERIA 1:INNOVATION

The nomination should provide evidence of the person’s creativity,originality and vision.

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Examples of innovative practice:

• Delivering a ground-breaking project to a successfuloutcome

• Taking up new ideas or new technologies• Working with new communities, new audiences or

developing new partnerships to improve theirpractice

• Finding creative ways to educate audiences andencourage life-long learning

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A Winning Example2005 Winner in the category of Individual Paid Staff:Audrey Hoffmann was the Director of the Warwick Art Gallery. Audrey was adynamic force in raising the Gallery’s relevance and reputation within the localcommunity and within the cultural sector. Audrey led a team of forty-five volunteersand invested enormous effort in working with local artists and art groups, localgovernment, and other sectors of the community to galvanise the Gallery’s impactwithin the region. She implemented innovative exhibition and public programs thatresonated with a previously indifferent community and took artists’ work beyond theGallery walls. Audrey’s inspiration and leadership raised the status of the WarwickArt Prize, and was instrumental to the success of Warwick’s festival, Jumpers andJazz in July, with its outdoor textile art, textile workshops and jazz music. TheGAMAA judges commented on Audrey’s innovative and dynamic approach topositioning the Gallery as a vibrant and relevant force within the community. At atime of amalgamation of local shires, Audrey introduced cultural programs andworked in partnership with other local groups to engender a sense of identity andbelonging. Her leadership, dedication and drive were considered by the judges tomake Audrey a worthy recipient of the award.

SELECTION CRITERIA 2:OUTCOMES IN THE COMMUNITY

The nomination should provide evidence of how the person has enriched the community.

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Examples of outcomes in the community:“Community” can mean the general community in your region, or

can mean a specific group within the community (such as youth,older people, people from a particular cultural/ethnicbackground, people who are isolated or disadvantaged)

• Enriching the cultural life of the community• Increasing community participation or developing new

audiences• Delivering successful outcomes for specific groups in

the community• Having an impact on the social or economic life of the

community

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A Winning Example2005 Winner in the category of Individual Volunteer:Patricia O’Connor is an Aboriginal Elder of the Yugambeh group and co-founderof Australia’s first Aboriginal language museum, The Yugembeh Museum –Language and Heritage Resource Centre in Beenleigh. In the face of perceptionsthat Patricia’s traditional language, the Yugam language, was lost Patriciainitiated a campaign to gather language from the older men and women in hercommunity, matched with research from public records, and from her ownmemories. The result was the collation of a number of dictionaries and arevitalisation of the language in the community in daily life. Patricia madesignificant contributions to the areas of museum studies, local history studies andIndigenous cultural heritage management over a twenty-year period. The GAMAAjudges commented on Patricia’s remarkable achievement in giving language backto her community, and the impressive effort she sustained throughout theprocess. Patricia’s role as a leader and advocate within her community, hervision, integrity, and her encouragement of and inspiration to others were seen asworthy attributes for the award. The judges took into consideration Patricia’ssignificant contribution in a voluntary capacity over many years.

SELECTION CRITERIA 3:BEST PRACTICE

The nomination should provide evidence of how the person has established new standards of practiceor significantly raised existing standards.

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Examples of best practice:The judges will be looking for the individual’s contribution above the

expectations of normal paid/voluntary employment.

• Establishing new standards of practice that can besustained

• Significantly raising their own existing standards of practice• Increasing their own level of professionalism or that of their

organisation• Contributing to the improvement of skills/knowledge of staff

and/or volunteers• Contributing to improving their organisation’s relationships

with its major stakeholders

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A Winning Example2007 Winner in the category of Individual Volunteer:Joan Hubbard is the volunteer Coordinator of the Chinchilla White GumsGallery. She has volunteered in this position since the Gallery wasestablished in 1999 and under her leadership has recruited a team of 42volunteers. Joan’s commitment to professional best practice saw herundertake a Certificate IV in Museum Practice, one of only eleven peoplein Queensland to have completed this accreditation. She undertook thecourse in her own time and financed it herself. Joan coordinates theannual exhibition program at the Gallery, supporting local artists to exhibittheir work, programming touring exhibitions which strive to challenge andexcite audiences, and developing the Gallery’s own touring exhibitionsfrom works in the Chinchilla Shire Collection and local artists.

SELECTION CRITERIA 4:LEADERSHIP

The nomination should provide evidence of how the person providedinspiration and guidance to others

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Examples of leadership:

• Providing inspiration as a role model for others• Leading others to implement new ideas• Identifying new initiatives or new directions

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A Winning Example2006 joint Winner in the category of Individual Paid Staff:Lisa Jones is the Curator of the Queensland Police Museum. In addition to herwork with the Museum, Lisa has demonstrated her considerable leadershipqualities and made an important contribution to the museum and gallery industry inQueensland through her voluntary work on numerous committees. Lisa was theChair of Brisbane's Living Heritage Network for four years; she is the CompanySecretary for Museum & Gallery Services Queensland; she is current President ofMuseums Australia (Queensland) including sitting on the National Council ofMuseums Australia and fulfilling the role of Conference Convenor for the 2006Museums Australia National Conference. Lisa contributed greatly to training andprofessional development programs for Queensland museum and gallery workersand volunteers — performing the role of assessor for museum studies certificatecourses throughout Queensland, developing assessment tools and often travellingto regional and remote areas for student evaluations. She also acted as a peerreviewer for a Standards Pilot Program recently introduced in Queensland. TheGAMAA judges emphasised Lisa's impressive contribution to the Queenslandmuseum and gallery sector through her leadership and outward-looking approach.

TIPS

How to maximise the success of your GAMAA nomination

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SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATION ON THEFORM PROVIDED

You don’t have much space,so use it wisely.

Try to give as much information as youcan fit in – but make it clear and directly

relevant to the nomination.

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FOR ORGANISATIONS, DECIDE ONTHE ACTIVITY TO BE NOMINATED

You might choose a particular project,exhibition, event, publication etc. tonominate, rather than nominate the

organisation as a whole.

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An activity, program or project generally has aspecific time frame and an identifiable

outcome which often can be more easilyassessed for its level of success.

Trying to demonstrate the success of a wholeorganisation with its many and varied

activities can be harder to do in a limitedspace, and more difficult to assess for its

achievements.

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However, there are no restrictions on whatan organisation might nominate, so choosethe thing that most strongly addresses the

selection criteria.You may feel that the whole of yourorganisation’s operations does that.

Ensure that your nomination gives clearexamples of the nature of the achievement.

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ADDRESS EACH OF THESELECTION CRITERIA

Your nomination may be stronger in somecriteria than others, but try hard todemonstrate achievement in every

criteria.

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“DEMONSTRATE” THECLAIMS BEING MADE

You should try not to make general claimssuch as “Judy is a wonderful leader”.

Instead you should demonstrate how herleadership achieves high standards andwhat that means for her colleagues, the

organisation, the community etc. This canbe achieved by providing facts, examples

and good support material.

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CHOOSE YOUR SUPPORT MATERIAL CAREFULLY

Support material must not exceed 6 itemsfor Organisations and 4 items for Individuals.

The material should enhance your writtennomination by giving extra information orbacking up the claims you have made.

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• If one of the items you have supplied is a 3-hour DVD orvideo, the judges will not have time to watch it all. Youwould be better to choose one or two excerpts of no morethan 10 minutes’ duration.

• If you are supplying media clippings, each clipping countsas 1 piece of support material, so don’t send two or threethat say the same thing. Choose the best.

• The judges will not have time to read large publications(including educational kits etc), so mark particular sectionsyou might want them to see.

• You can send a written referee’s report as one of the items.It should add to what your nomination says, not simplyrepeat the same information.

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Where possible, support material should be providedelectronically on a CD/DVD posted with the nomination

form. This might include scans of media clippings,photographs, word documents etc. This helps us to

streamline the process by providing the judges with someof the support material prior to judging day.

Obviously, hard copies of items such as publications,business plans, merchandise etc. cannot be sent to each

judge, and will be viewed by them on judging day.

Your nomination will not be disadvantaged if you cannotsupply the material electronically.

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GET SOMEONE ELSE TOREAD YOUR NOMINATION

Ask someone who is not familiar with theactivity or the individual to read your

nomination and tell you if the information isclear, comprehensive and answers the criteria

in a strong and positive way. They can alsohelp check spelling and grammar.

JUDGING

Who are the judges andwhat are they looking for?

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The judging panel changes from year to year.It comprises six to seven members from

across the sector, representing museums andgalleries, large and small, regional and

metropolitan. There is usually at least oneperson from an associated industry (egtourism), and usually one person from

interstate with experience in similar awardsprograms.

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The judges choose a Winner in each of the fivecategories (3 organisations and 2 individuals).

The judges may also award SpecialCommendations in each of the five categories.There is no limit to how many Commendations areawarded.

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What are the judges looking for?

Nominations which:

• Are strong in all of the selection criteria

• Demonstrate significant outcomes commensuratewith the resources available

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How can you help the judges in theirdifficult task?

• Ensure your nomination is clearly written, with a directfocus on the activity or individual being nominated

• Address all of the selection criteria as strongly as possible• Send good support material which gives extra information

or helps to demonstrate the claims being made• Complete the form correctly, including providing referee

details and the correct number of items of support material

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Organisations should make sure toprovide all of the information requested.The judges will assess the outcomes of youractivity against the available resources for

your project (budget, the number ofstaff/volunteers working on the project,

services/support available in your region)

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This means that biggeris not necessarily better.

If you had very limited resources but achievedan outcome that was substantial for yourorganisation, then your nomination will

compete very well against organisations whohad bigger budgets, more staff/volunteers, etc.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

What does winning aGAMAA mean?

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The Prizes:The winners in each of the five categoriesreceive a specially commissioned trophy by aQueensland designer. The trophies are by adifferent designer each year.

All winners and special commendationrecipients receive an Award certificate.

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• The winner of the category, Organisations: Staffof under 5, receives a $1,000 cash prize.

• The winner of the category, Organisations:Volunteer, receives a $1,000 cash prize.

• The winner of the category, Individuals Paid,receives $1,000 of goods/services.

• The winner of the category, Individuals Volunteer,receives $1,000 of goods/services.

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M&GSQ covers travel expenses for all winners andcommendation recipients to attend the Awardspresentation evening, usually held aroundOctober/November each year, hosted by a majorcultural institution.

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M&GSQ undertakes extensive media coverage forall winners and commendation recipients, particularlywithin the winners’ regions.

M&GSQ also publishes major articles on awardrecipients in its publications.

Many GAMAA winners have experienced flow-onbenefits such as improved profile within their regionsand with stakeholders such as local government,funding bodies, sponsors.

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So start preparing your 2009 nomination!CLOSING DATE 10 JULY 2009

M&GSQ staff are on hand to help if you have any questions abouteligibility, selection criteria, how to fill out forms, etc.

Phone 07 3215 0820 or 07 3215 0842 orfreecall within Queensland 1800 680 433

Or email information@magsq.com.au

2009 GAMAA nomination forms can be downloaded as a PDF or Worddocument from Museum and Gallery Services Queensland’s website

www.magsq.com.au

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GALLERY AND MUSEUM ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS