Sharks and WAnderland among winners at Museums and Galleries National Awards

The Australian Museum and the Western Australian Museum are among the winners of the Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA) awards with the ceremony held 16th May at the Murrook Cultural Centre in Newcastle.

The prestigious national awards attract nominations from across Australia and New Zealand and showcase the diverse offering of cultural institutions through a wide range of categories, from the traditional travelling exhibition to the more contemporary virtual reality.

The Australian Museum (AM) secured three awards for the Temporary or Travelling Exhibition category for its homegrown blockbuster exhibition, Sharks, the Interpretation, Learning & Audience Engagement category for its learning and play space, Burra, and the Community Engagement and Outreach category for World Pride at the Australian Museum.

Director and Chief Executive, Australian Museum, Kim McKay enthused “It’s fantastic to see the AM’s outstanding exhibitions and community engagement continue to be recognised at a national level. It is the second year in a row that we’ve won for our exhibitions. Last year, the AM’s ground-breaking First Nations exhibition, Unsettled, also took home the award for best temporary exhibition in its category.

“This year, we are thrilled to be recognised for our homegrown blockbuster Sharks exhibition, which closed in April and will now tour museums across the United States. Our popular learning and play space Burra, which combines First Nations and western science, has also been awarded, as well as our community engagement for our World Pride activities held at the Australian Museum, which included the unofficial icon of World Pride, Progress Shark.”

The Australian Museum will deliver additional new cultural exhibitions and galleries over the coming months, including Bilas: Body Adornment in Papua New Guinea (opening June 2023), a new Pasifika Gallery (opening October 2023) and Ramses The Great and The Gold of The Pharaohs (opening November 2023).

The AM was also shortlisted for two other 2023 Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards (MAPDAs), including for Mineral Icons (Major Exhibition Catalogue MAPDA Category) and Minerals Gallery online publication (Program Website MAPDA Category).

'WAnderland' was launched in June 2022 and is the Western Australian Museum's online gateway to 220 of the most intriguing private and public collections across the state. It won the award for Program Website category.

The WA Museum also received 'Highly Commended' accolades in three other award categories:

•  Interpretation, learning and audience engagement - WA Museum Boola Bardip Early Learning Programs;

• Temporary or travelling exhibition - Fremantle Then and Now: Historical Panoramas, WA Maritime Museum; and

• Exhibition branding - Dinosaurs of Patagonia, WA Museum Boola Bardip and Block Branding

WAnderland opens a doorway to WA's fascinating regional collections and is packed with hidden treasures and tales - from the cultured to the kitsch and everything in between. The AMaGA awards highlight the strength of online platforms in bringing collections into the digital age, improving accessibility and reach, so they can be enjoyed in new and different ways.

Image top: Australian Museum’s homegrown blockbuster exhibition, Sharks supporting World Pride Event;  image above: WAnderland