CMA Outstanding Achievement

Stewardship of Collections

For research activities carried out in museums or applied to museum practice that contributes to the development of new knowledge and understanding.

Galt Museum & Archives

The Award of Outstanding Achievement for excellence in stewardship of collections recognizes exceptional museum projects in the preservation of intangible culture heritage, including relevant digital practices and documentation.

This award is presented to Galt Museum & Archives for their remarkable undertaking in capturing the oral histories behind their acquisitions. Their approach allows for unique and human stories to be told about each and every item in their collections, giving them new life and personality. The Galt and their wonderful team of staff and volunteers have been implementing this practice for over a decade to help sustain a living memory of their collections and of Lethbridge as a whole.

Through interviews, the museum collaborates with the donors and their families to help shape the way that narrative histories are told. The artifacts’ backgrounds help identify important events in personal histories, whether the item is a wedding dress or a pillowcase! Every requisition and donor has a story and the Galt Museum wants each and every one to be heard.

"Thank-you to those who judged our work worthy of recognition. Credit is shared with countless folks who helped create and support our documentation and access practice. We appreciate our community, in particular folks who entrust us with their treasures and who are eager to share their objects’ connections and meanings with us. We are also indebted to our Collections’ staff and volunteers; they are the army of souls who make our objects’ distinctive voices publicly accessible. And finally, I am personally grateful to have had the opportunity over many years to reflect on what is truly important about objects — people. The Galt Museum & Archives is honoured to receive this award and we hope that our approach to oral history collections documentation can be an example for other institutions as well."