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The Richard Martin Award annually recognizes up to two institutions
for outstanding achievement in the area of costume exhibition.
Awards will be presented at the National Symposium,
where a representative from each of the award winning institutions
will present a slide talk on their institution's costume
exhibition. Each presenter will receive $500 for travel and
symposium expenses.
Exhibitions are the public face of museums and other select
cultural institutions. It is through the effective interpretation
and presentation of costume collections that the vast majority
of people encounter the field of world dress.
Costume exhibitions
are by their nature complex, and even modest ones require
the time, energy and expertise of many people.
They are collaborative efforts and represent the synergy of
the curator's scholarship, a conservator's skill, the designer
and preparator's artistry, the development department's fund
raising success, the promotional skills of marketing, educational
programming, and frequently the devoted efforts of docents
and other volunteers.
The Richard Martin Award for Excellence
in the Exhibition of Costume is named for Richard Martin (1947-1999),
curator
of costumes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fashion
Institute of Technology. An elegant and gracious man, Richard
Martin was an outstanding scholar, lecturer, critic and curator
of many critically acclaimed costume exhibitions. A Fellow
of the Costume Society of America, Richard Martin served
on its board of directors for six years. He also served as editor
of Dress, the society's scholarly journal, and as president
of the Mid-Atlantic Region. This award annually recognizes up to two institutions
for excellence in the exhibition of costume. These exhibitions
exemplify the standards of excellence established by the late
Richard Martin.
The Richard Martin Award annually recognizes up to two institutions
for outstanding achievement in the area of costume exhibition.
The recipients of this award are recognized for a costume exhibition
mounted either at a museum, historical society, historic house,
an academic department within an institution of higher learning,
or at a site where museum standards are applied. If the exhibition
combines costume with other materials, such as paintings, decorative
arts, etc., at least sixty percent of the objects on display must
be costume.
At least one member of the exhibition team must
be a member of the Costume Society of America.
Institutions are not
eligible to receive the award more than once in three consecutive
years.
Note: The Costume Society
of America recognizes that exhibition size is not necessarily an
indicator of excellence. It also acknowledges
that large institutions with large exhibition budgets may have an unfair
advantage over smaller institutions with less funding. In order to
balance competition between exhibitions of different size and funding,
up to two Richard Martin Awards may be awarded each year. The committee
reserves the right to withhold one or both awards if submissions do
not attain the excellence outlined in this document.
Only those exhibitions presented in the fifteen months
prior to the January 15 entry deadline will be considered.
Entries
must be postmarked on or before January
15th and mailed to
the national office of the Costume Society of America.
The awards will be presented each year at the spring symposium of
the Costume Society of America. At the symposium each institution's
designated recipient of the Richard Martin Award will present a
slide talk and introduction to his/her institution's exhibition.
Each presenter
will receive $500 for travel and symposium expenses.
Details on
How to Apply
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