Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum News


	For Immediate Release: May 4, 2009	Contact: David Blanchette (217) 558-8970
	On-line student magazine about 1908 Springfield Race Riot receives prestigious national awards American Association of Museums honors "Flashpoint" produced by Presidential Library's Summer Scholars Program Springfield, IL — The American Association of Museums (AAM) has awarded two MUSE Awards for Flashpoint, the on-line magazine about the 1908 Springfield Race Riot developed by student participants in the 2008 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum's Summer Scholars Program. The awards were presented April 30 at the AAM Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Flashpoint received a Gold Award in the Teaching and Outreach Category and the Jim Blackaby Ingenuity Award, given to the media project that stood above the other submissions in inventiveness and quality. Now in its 20th year, the MUSE Awards competition recognizes outstanding achievement in museum media. The competition is an activity of the Media and Technology Standing Professional Committee of the AAM. Springfield area high school student participants in the July 28 – August 8, 2008 Summer Scholars Program researched, designed and developed the on-line magazine as part of the 100th anniversary of the Springfield Race Riot. They created a final product that showcases their work as photojournalists, designers, webmasters, museum curators, and research historians. The Summer Scholars Program, coordinated by Dr. Erin Bishop of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, was funded in part by a grant through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation. The Flashpoint magazine may be viewed at www.presidentlincoln.org. The judges who awarded Flashpoint a Gold Award in the Teaching and Outreach Category had this to say about the magazine: "This was a fantastic and compelling project. It more truly exemplifies teaching and outreach. The students were not passive participants. They were engaged learners and became the teachers and facilitators. Having the students work with a variety of experts, including librarians, historians, museum professionals, educators, graphic designers, and event organizers, led them through every step of the project design and event management. Along with learning about a significant event in the history of their community, they gained valuable career skills. The project based design involved the students in real work and exposed them to multiple media applications. The jurors felt the project was a phenomenal opportunity for the students and had the potential for long-term impact." Likewise, the judges who awarded the Jim Blackaby Award had praise for the students' work: "This project is deserving of the Jim Blackaby Award because it is innovative while exemplifying best practices in project based learning, museum practices, and media applications. Each student, no matter what their preferred style of learning, had an opportunity to engage with the content in a manner that was comfortable and non-threatening. This made learning the new content and media applications relevant and meaningful. The project is multifaceted, beautifully produced, inspiring, innovative and will undoubtedly have a long term impact on these students — an experience they will remember through adulthood." The MUSE Awards competition received nearly 250 applications from a wide variety of museums in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Entries included audio, cell phone, and interactive handheld tours, interactive kiosks and multimedia installations, podcasts, blogs, games, websites, online collection and image databases, videos, and e-mail marketing campaigns. This year MUSE Award winners were named from 11 distinct categories. Sixty-six judges – museum and media professionals from across the county – were involved in the process of selecting the winners. A complete list of MUSE Award winners can be found on the Media and Technology website: http://www.mediaandtechnology.org/ The Springfield Race Riot began August 14, 1908 and at least seven people were killed, many more injured, and numerous homes and businesses destroyed before the violence ended August 16. Jolted to action by the riot, social activists founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the oldest civil rights organization in the nation. The Presidential Library showcased a related exhibit for several months during 2008. ###