Entries include audio, enhanced (with still images), and video podcasts. The podcasts create links between on-line and on-site activities which use the format to augment and extend programs, exhibits, and lectures to a global audience.
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Jury Chair: Maria L. Gilbert
Sr. Editor Collection Information & Access, J. Paul Getty Museum
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GOLD: Audio on demand program
National Museum of Australia and Icelab Pty Ltd
Judges said: This interface is outstanding, both visually and functionally. The category cloud offers a great mix of topics and allows users to go straight to items of interest. The HTML transcriptions, and download and subscription options all help to make this content particularly accessible. Creating a content management system to publish the audio on demand program is an efficient means to archive and extend the reach of their rich public programming. The podcasts help to promote the core activities of the institution, and it’s clear how the audio lectures are related to their mission.
Producers said: The National Museum of Australia’s Audio on Demand program is an evolving collection of recordings of lectures, forums and symposiums held at the Museum’s building in Canberra. As a social history museum, our programs include a wide range of topics. The Museum has particularly strong collections and content relating to Australia’s Indigenous peoples and our podcast programs reflect this.
As a national and publicly funded museum, the goal of Audio on Demand is to extend the reach of our public programs to lifelong learners across our large continent and to international audiences. Podcasts are transcribed to enable access for people with hearing disabilities as well as for students and researchers.
In 2009 the Museum engaged Icelab Pty to redevelop its podcast website to improve both the discovery of programs and the efficiency of the production process. The new site enables visitors to browse content by series and keyword as well as to search on title, author and description. The content management is now streamlined and includes an automated output of our RSS feed as well as a feed to iTunes. The new system has halved our production time and enabled podcasting to become an integrated component of our public programs.
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SILVER: Past & Present Podcasts
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Judges said: This is a terrific educational resource regarding American colonial history and behind-the-scenes stories of this complex living history museum. The depth and breadth of material is impressive. Their ability and obvious interest in reaching a non-specialist audience, not only in the choice of topics (from slavery to pottery, science to juvenile justice), but also in the personalities and the writing, is engaging while still respectful to the topic. Podcast participants are well versed in their subjects, and the interviewer leads the stories wonderfully. Overall, the networking of content on the site as a whole is extremely effective at engaging visitors, and we love that they give users the option to submit ideas. The podcasts function well as one of a number of distribution platforms to deliver content regarding the institution’s mission.
Producers said: Colonial Williamsburg’s “Past & Present Podcasts” are weekly 15-minute audio and video programs that provide history “on demand” to an increasingly high-tech society. With an average of 120,000 subscribers each month, we reach schoolteachers and students, researchers and colleagues, and history fans from around the world. Each Monday, since May 2005, a new podcast introduces candid talks with all of the people who bring the 18th century to life, from behind the scenes in costuming to the front lines of the Virginia State Garrison Regiment. Producer and host Harmony Hunter interviews a cadre of researchers, curators, interpreters and scholars who share their insights as they work to preserve and interpret this touchstone of American history. Hear the fascinating and surprising ways our forefathers lived their daily lives. “Past & Present Podcasts” are available to visitors to the Colonial Williamsburg Web site at www.history.org/podcasts. Fans can listen at their computers, download them through Apple’s iTunes store, or on an mp3 player.
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BRONZE: 2010 Biennial Video Series
Whitney Museum of American Art and Pierce Jackson
Judges said: Each episode features an interview with an artist, and the podcasts feel as if one is visiting an exhibition, rather than seeing a presentation of an artist’s work on a screen. The podcasts are widely varied in subject matter, but all are accessible and interesting. The Whitney staff have developed an effective means of documenting their many exhibitions and sharing these exhibitions with a much larger audience.
Producers said: For the 2010 Biennial, the Whitney launched an online video channel with the goal of giving online audiences unprecedented access to the artists, curators, programs and events associated with the Museum’s signature contemporary art exhibition. The Whitney produced 35 Biennial videos, with most videos running less than three minutes. What distinguished the series was the informal, intimate feel of the production. Highlights of the video series include the curators discussing the process behind the making the show, special collaborations with artists intended to extend the reach of their Biennial works online, behind-the-scenes footage of installation in the galleries, and clips of select Biennial performances and events. By releasing these videos throughout the run of the exhibition in the multimedia section of the Whitney’s new website at whitney.org/watchandlisten, the series has sustained interest and successfully reached audiences beyond the scope of the Whitney’s website via YouTube, iTunes, and viral re-posting to blogs.
Produced by Pierce Jackson and the Whitney Museum of American Art. This in-house project was created by a Whitney production team led by Alexandra Nemerov with Sarah Meller and Kathryn Potts and included Rebecca Gimenez, Sarah Hromack, and Jeffrey Levine.
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Jurors:
Bret Nicely, Web Initiatives Manager, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Agnes Stauber, Media Producer, Fowler Museum at UCLA
Annelisa Stephan, Sr. Web Writer/Editor, J. Paul Getty Trust
Ann Zumwinkle, Web Designer/Developer, Zumwinkle.com
Barbara Long, Vice President of Special Projects, Aquarium of the Pacific
Steven Swimmer, Director Online Content & Strategy, Fox Broadcasting
Richard Cherry, Director, Balboa Park Online Collaborative
Diana Folsom, Manager Art and Education Systems, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
