2025 AMM Awards recipients on stage with members of the AMM Board
Each year, the Association of Midwest Museums honors members throughout the Midwest region for leadership, career achievements, and best practices with the following awards:
Distinguished Career Award: Recognizes individuals (paid staff, board members, and volunteers) from museums big or small who are at mid- to late-museum career stages. The leadership, vision, mentorship, and creativity of nominees must have—over the course of their careers—had a positive impact on staff and community members and/or resulted in lasting change for their institutions.
Promising Leadership Award: Recognizes the commitment and service of individuals (paid staff, interns, board members, and volunteers) from museums big or small in the early stages of their careers. Nominees must have demonstrated leadership prowess through the implementation of projects or through service to teams or departments.
Best Practices Award: Recognizes museums and cultural organizations of any size or type whose innovative projects (exhibitions, collections stewardship, programs, virtual or in-person) or community partnerships and collaborations have pushed beyond the status quo and led to the advancement of best museum practices or the establishment of new practices at their institutions in order to better fulfill their missions. Nominated projects or initiatives must have been implemented by the time of nomination to be considered and resulted in new practices, knowledge, ideas, and/or replicable models for the museum profession at large.
Groundbreakers Award: Recognizes museums or cultural organizations who have pushed past boundaries, broken conventions, addressed uncomfortable truths about their institution’s histories and connection to oppressive systems and structures, and/or creatively engaged collaborative partners to affect change in the pursuit of a better, more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable future. Nominees’ external or internal projects or initiatives—big or small—have resulted in better support for their staff and volunteers, greater service to their diverse communities, new thinking about their collections, or advancement of social justice work in their communities. Museums of any size are qualified and encouraged to apply, and will be honored for their internal or external efforts to advance access and equity at their institutions.
Nominate a Colleague
The Association of Midwest Museums Awards Call for Nominations is now open. Read the 2026 Call for Award Nominations (Word Version or PDF Version) for details about nomination requirements, and consider nominating someone you know by 11:59 pm CT on April 30, 2026.
Submit your nomination using the form linked here.
Awards Selection and Recognition
The AMM Awards Committee will review all nominations following the close of the Call for Nominations. Nominating parties will be notified of the committee’s decision by early June. Recipients will be announced publicly in July and recognized during an in-person recognition event on July 28 at the Marriott Marquis Chicago, during the 2026 Conference.
In addition, AMM will host a series of virtual celebrations in honor of the recipients in October – November, each featuring a dynamic program co-created with the recipient. These events bring together the honorees’ communities to celebrate, including staff and leadership, members and partners, and Midwestern peers. Event planning will occur in August – September.
Past Recipients
Looking for inspiration or want to learn more about the format of our virtual celebration events? Visit the AMM YouTube channel to watch recordings of past virtual awards celebrations.