EDC Multimedia Online Course Awarded Top Prize by American Alliance of Museums

WALTHAM, MA | The American Alliance of Museums has recognized EDC’s work with the Arkansas-based Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art with a Gold MUSE Award for outstanding achievement. The award was presented for Museum Mash Up: American Identity through the Arts, a multimedia online course developed by Crystal Bridges and EDC.

Created by a team led by EDC’s Kirsten Peterson, director of EdTech Leaders Online, and Anne Kraybill, Crystal Bridges director of education, the course is a blend of art and history that enables students to explore the identity of America as represented in the arts. The course was piloted this spring with Arkansas high school students and will be made available nationally in fall 2015.

“We’re so pleased to have our course recognized nationally,” said Peterson. “We wanted to help Crystal Bridges design an engaging course for students and never expected it would gain the attention of the wider museum community. This is exciting.”

Located in Bentonville, Arkansas, Crystal Bridges features five centuries of American art. In Museum Mash Up, each piece of art is used as a primary source that, when studied in the context of readings from historians, provides a unique perspective on American history and identity.

The MUSE Awards celebrate innovation, creativity, education, and inclusiveness in the museum community. An international group of technology professionals chooses the winning projects for each category, and the winners are featured in American Museum magazine. The 2015 awards were presented on April 28 in Atlanta, Georgia.

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