OMA Award Spotlight - Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum

With the Emmy's red carpet now a few weeks behind us, it's official - Awards Season is upon us! Here at OMA, autumn also kicks off our awards season, with nominations for the Annual Ohio Museums Association Awards accepted through January 28, 2019.

The Ohio Museums Association’s Annual Awards are all about Ohio – more specifically the museums in our great state and the wonderful museum professionals who work in and for them. 

The OMA Awards are divided into two categories: the Awards of Achievement, and the Visual Communication Awards. Learn more about these two categories and how you can nominate your museum on the OMA Awards page.

Recognizing excellence in Ohio museums during Arts and Humanities Month

To help celebrate October as Arts and Humanities Month, and to kick-off the call for nominations for this year's OMA awards, we'll be highlighting our 2017 OMA Award of Achievement winners throughout the month with our OMA Award Spotlight. 

The Awards of Achievement are presented to reflect the outstanding quality and caliber of work by Ohio museums and their professionals in two categories: Institutional Achievement Awards and Individual Achievement Awards.

Nominations for these awards are incredibly detailed. This in-depth process helps to illustrate how these institutions and individuals have gone “above and beyond” the normal call of duty to support their institution, serve their public and advance the cause of the museum community.

Each year, the review panel is overwhelmed by the outstanding projects, innovative programming and dedication to our field as exhibited in each of the institutional and individual nominations. Congratulations again to each of our award winners! 

Today' we'll be featuring our winner for the 2017 award for Best Exhibition under $500,000.

Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum -  Exhibits

2017 marked the end of a four-year project for the Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum, to do a complete interpretation of the museum’s artifact collection and tell the story of the area railroad from 1855 to 1985.

With an annual operating budget of less than $25,000, the museum worked with Exhibit Concepts to develop the plan, and secured state funds and private donations to transform a former bank building into a new exhibit hall.

This highly interactive exhibit is full of sights and sounds, and presents the 130 history of the Bradford Railroad Junction in a format that connects their local story to the larger, national history of the railroad – all while fulfilling the Ohio K-12 school standards in math, science and social studies.

The significance of this exhibit, as stated in their nomination packet, transformed Bradford’s artifacts from just a “collection of things into an educational, railroad museum.”


Did your museum have a spectacular exhibit during the 2018 season? Be sure to nominate it for the 2017 award for Best Exhibition! Learn more here.

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