Exhibition website named Best Small Museum Project at the 2014 Museums and the Web conference

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College is proud to announce that its Classless Society interactive feature was awarded Best Small Museum Project on Friday night in Baltimore at the annual Museums and the Web conference.

Classless Society, which was exhibited from September 7, 2013, to March 9, 2014, at the Tang, investigated class from various social and economic perspectives; among other topics, it considered class mobility, the different ways class is signaled, the reality of the American dream, and the myths surrounding it in 21st-century United States.

The special online feature complemented the gallery exhibition. The exhibition website, which can be found here, provides additional background and statistics, and offers information about the artists and how their work reflects the complex issues surrounding class status in our so-called classless society.

Museums and the Web is an international organization with more than 600 members from 40 countries worldwide who work at the intersection of museums and the digital world. The Tang was one of only 11 winners in the annual Best of the Web competition. Other winners this year include the Dallas Museum of Art for innovation; the Imperial War Museums and National Archives of Great Britain for use of collections; and the Museum of Modern Art for education.

“This award recognizes how the Tang lives up to its mission by confronting important ideas through art from an interdisciplinary perspective,” said the Tang Museum’s Dayton Director Ian Berry. “Special recognition must go to Vickie Riley, the Tang’s digital resources content producer, and Joe Klockowski, an art major in Skidmore’s Class of 2014.”

Together, they developed the online feature last summer by blending data, as well as audio and video of personal stories compiled during a “Classless Society Stories” project.

Classless Society was curated by Janet Casey, Professor of English, Skidmore College; Mehmet Odekon, Professor of Economics, Skidmore College; Rachel Seligman, Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs, Tang Museum; and John Weber, Founding Director of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz.

Here is the full list of credits for the online feature:

Contributors and consultants: Janet Casey, professor of English, Skidmore College; Mehmet Odekon, professor of economics, Skidmore College; Rachel Seligman, assistant director for curatorial affairs, Tang Museum; John Weber, founding director of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz; Jenna Postler, curatorial intern, Tang Museum

Design and production: Vickie Riley, digital resources content producer, Tang Museum; Joe Klockowski, Classless Society website designer, Tang Museum

Audio recordings: Gregory Carter, audio engineer; Chris Franzini, audio engineer; Frank Moskowitz, audio engineer

Editorial: Susi Watts Kerr, former senior museum educator, Tang Museum; Jay Rogoff, independent editor; Megan Hyde, curatorial assistant, Tang Museum

Graphs: Joe Klockowski, Classless Society website designer, Tang Museum

Research: Susi Watts Kerr, former senior museum educator, Tang Museum; Sophie Matyas, curatorial intern, Tang Museum; Jenna Postler, curatorial intern, Tang Museum; Beatrice Moller, education intern, Tang Museum; Liz Porfido, education intern, Tang Museum; Brett Hartman, digital resources intern, Tang Museum

Class Action for Skidmore Students

Video: Brett Hartman, digital resources Intern, Tang Museum; Sophie Matyas, curatorial intern, Tang Museum

Special thanks: Anthony Holland; Participants in the Classless Society Stories Project; Class Action for Skidmore Students; Skidmore Office of Alumni Affairs