UAMA Wins Award for Visionary Leadership, Community Engagement
The UA Museum of Art will be honored for its bold exhibitions and programs during an awards ceremony on Sept. 26.

UA Museum of Art
Sept. 22, 2016


The University of Arizona Museum of Art has been awarded the 2016 Museum Association of Arizona's Institutional Award of Excellence, recognizing the museum's bold exhibitions and programs, as well as its innovative research, partnerships and teaching initiatives.

The honor is in reconigiton of the UAMA's efforts to position itself as a model for community engagement among university art museums and its vision of establishing itself as Arizona's most dynamic art museum.

The award is given to a museum that has exhibited leadership qualities while achieving excellence in the areas of collection, preservation, research, interpretation and education. Museums are judged within the context of available means, the institution's mission and professional standards.

W. James Burns, the UAMA's diector, is grateful for the recognition.

"There's nothing quite like recognition from one's peers," Burns said.

Previous awardees include the Museum of Northern Arizona and Lowell Observatory.

This marks the third consecutive year that the UAMA has been honored by Museum Association of Arizona after staff members received the Individual Award for Excellence in 2014 and 2015.

Inspired by its position within the UA's Office of Research and Discovery, the UAMA has started to foster new relationships with faculty and students across campus through its exhibition schedule to offer them a voice in these galleries. The hope is for the UAMA and these new audiences to collaborate on creative research projects in the arts and beyond.

This renewed focus has already led to a landmark museum lighting and optics project, a science communication fellowship and a soon-to-debut gallery dedicated to student-curated exhibitions.

"The staff's work over the past couple of years has resulted in a transformation of the organization into the first official teaching museum, both in the U.S. West and at a public research university," Burns said. "It is a privilege to lead such a dedicated, passionate and creative team."

Extra info

The UAMA will be honored during a ceremony to be held Sept. 26 during the Museum Association of Arizona's annual conference, which is being held in partnership with the Western Museum Association's annual meeting in Phoenix. More information is available online.

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Gina Compitello-Moore

The University of Arizona Museum of Art and The Center for Creative Photography

520-626-7978

ginacompitello@email.arizona.edu