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• Cleveland Museum of Art's Online Collection wins MUSE Award 2006

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The Cleveland Museum of Art’s (CMA) Collections Online feature, designed and developed by Cogapp, has been awarded Silver in the Database or Reference Section of the American Association of Museums’ MUSE Awards 2006.

Now in its seventeenth year, the MUSE Awards recognise outstanding achievement in museum media. The competition received 108 applications from a wide variety of museums in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Thirty judges – museums and media professionals from across the US – were involved in the process of selecting the winners.

Starting in 2001, the CMA Online Collection has grown from a simple system covering some thousand works with limited features to one featuring over forty times that number, with a range of special features described by the MUSE judges as: “compelling…from ever-changing ‘Today’s Selections’ to advanced search and access to keywords, from personal collections visitors can ‘curate’ and share, to e-cards for those who just want to say hello with their favourite discovery.“

Commending the Museum and its Online Collection for the intellectual respect and care for the audience that it demonstrates, reviewers commented: “it is the real thing…a rich resource, with a clean and clear design aesthetic, which offers [visitors] endless opportunities to make the CMA’s objects their own. In conclusion, the Judges said: the CMA Collections Online is a great museum collection resource today, and sets the foundation for an even greater resource in the future”.

The Online Collection is one of a string of successful collaborations between the CMA and Cogapp that includes exhibition microsites, website re-development, the CMA kids site and interactive kiosks such as ‘Exploring Picasso’s La Vie, which was awarded a Bronze MUSE in May 2002 (see LaVie news item.)

Leonard Steinbach, Chief Information Officer of CMA said of the winning partnership: The depth and thoughtfulness of the CMA Online Collection is a tribute to our long-term relationship with Cogapp. The foundation of our relationship has always been our shared values and our enthusiasm for effective innovation, both of which are always well reflected in the work they do.