Following on from a gold MUSE award for Dynamic Earth’s Rio Tinto Volcanic 3D in AVIE by iCinema UNSW, popular exhibition Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world at Melbourne Museum has won a prestigious award for Special Achievement in Innovation Design at the American Association of Museums’ 23rd Annual Excellence in Exhibition Competition.
“Winning two major international awards in one week is a remarkable result for Museum Victoria, and this global recognition affirms the Museum’s leading position in exhibition design,” said Dr Patrick Greene, CEO, Museum Victoria.
“Museum Victoria is committed to developing exhibitions that are informative and engaging for all our visitors,” said Dr Greene. “Creative and innovative design is central to achieving this goal, and we are very proud to be acknowledged in this area, especially as Wild has been greeted with great enthusiasm by thousands of visitors.”
“Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world was designed to take visitors on a journey beyond the traditional museum display,” said Tim Rolfe, Head, MV Studios. “Our design team has done an outstanding job of presenting natural history specimens in very contemporary style. Using sophisticated multimedia technologies, visitors are encouraged to engage and interact with the exhibits in an entirely new way”.
Dr Greene received the award for Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world on behalf of Museum Victoria at the American Association of Museums Annual Conference on Wednesday morning, 25 May (US time) in Houston, Texas.
Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world features a spectacular display of more than 780 birds, mammals and reptiles to educate audiences on the importance of biodiversity and the ways in which it is under threat. As well as showing the incredible variety of animals found in different parts of the world, Wild also tells stories of how people are working to conserve wildlife, and what we can do to make a difference.
“Importantly, the exhibition design also reflects Museum Victoria’s commitment to sustainable development. Where possible components from the exhibition’s previous display have been recycled or offered to other institutions for re-use. New materials were selected for their low environmental impact and templates and off-cuts created during production were donated to be re-used in student designs workshops,” said Rolfe.
Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world was the second phase of the redevelopment of Melbourne Museum’s Science and Life Gallery completed in late 2010 with the opening of Dynamic Earth. The renewed Science and Life Gallery is the most comprehensive natural science display in any Australian museum and features more than 3,000 objects from the Museum’s collections, many on display for the first time.
The Twenty-third Annual Excellence in Exhibition Competition recognises outstanding achievement in exhibitions from museums and galleries worldwide.