Congratulations to Judy Rand, winner of the Excellence in Exhibition Label Writing Competition. This competition recognizes outstanding and innovative label writing in museums, zoos, aquariums, universities, and libraries. It is sponsored by the Curators Committee (CurCom), in cooperation with the Education Professional Network (EdCom) and the National Association for Museum Exhibitions (NAME). A panel of label experts, selected by the committees and the competition organizers, determines the work to recognize. Each year, the competition inspires a gathering of writers and editors to discuss technique, style, and process at the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting’s Marketplace of Ideas. It has also generated an archive for current and aspiring museum professionals to use while writing and editing exhibition label copy.
As you can see from the picture, Judy’s label for the True Northwest: The Seattle Journey exhibition at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle is “clear, direct, unvarnished and riveting.” Judge Jenny-Sayre Ramberg continues “I’m looking into the box, making an inventory of a few, seemingly unimportant household items and suddenly I see them differently …. The writer doesn’t tell me how I should feel, or describe things I should see. The writer puts me in front of the box and the facts about rural Nepal and the challenges women face–to make up my own mind about what it means to me, and to the world.”
