2015 NEMA Excellence Awards Winners
At the NEMA Annual Conference we announced the winners of the NEMA Excellence Awards. Each winner demonstrated extraordinary effort and commitment to the New England museum community. Their work makes us better as a community of museum professionals and as a field and we would like to highlight them in this feature. The following are excerpts from their nominations.
David Lee Colglazier, former conservator at Old Sturbridge Village and currently a museum consultant, was nominated in recognition of his more than forty years’ involvement in the New England museum community. Not only was he conservator at Old Sturbridge Village for twenty-eight years, but he has shown consistent dedication to the field as a whole, serving as a chair for the NEMA conservator’s PAG, as a mentor to emerging museum professionals, and as a reviewer for Heritage Preservation’s Conservation assessment Program and for the IMLS conservation support grants. Locally, he has also brought his professional skills in a volunteer capacity to the Londonderry Historical Society, and has been active politically on behalf of museums.
Denise LeBlanc, director of learning experiences at The Discovery Museums, was nominated in recognition of her pivotal role in science education and outreach at the museum for more than twenty-five years. Praised by numerous colleagues for her enthusiasm, collaborative spirit, positive attitude, and expertise, she is credited with being a guiding force within the institution, and in extending the reach of the museum beyond the Acton campus. Denise has shepherded groundbreaking collaborative projects such as a museum-school cooperative with Uxbridge High School that won the 2001 ASTC Award for Innovation, “Girls Get SET” and “Discovery KWEST” with Tufts University and the Boys & Girls’ Club, and even an international collaboration with Tin Marin Museo de los Ninos and the Caserio School in Ilobasco, El Salvador, and the Merriam School in Acton, as part of a cultural exchange and biodiversity unit. Most recently, she has led the Discovery Museums to be the only New England member of Portal to the Public, a program which teaches scientists how better to communicate with and educate the public on their work.
David Nathans, departing executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, was nominated in appreciation of his leadership in transforming the Martha’s Vineyard Museum. Under David's guidance, the Museum embarked on an ambitious $24 million project involving an entirely new campus and the renovation of the 1895 Vineyard Haven Marine Hospital, as well as the establishment of a $4.5 million endowment and the increased professionalization of staff and business practices. He has also used his role as director to bring the museum into closer community partnerships, working with the Martha’s Vineyard Arts organization and on the designation of Vineyard Haven as a Cultural District.
Sally Whipple, executive director of Connecticut’s Old State House, was nominated for commitment to the Connecticut museum community over the past thirty years. She is especially noted for having “turned an institution that many believed was closed into a vibrant, engaging, creative, and partnership-oriented museum,” as well as for her dedication to volunteering for numerous organizations for the betterment of the museum field, including the Association for the Study of Connecticut History, NEMA, Connecticut League of History Organizations, the Connecticut Civic Health Advisory Board, the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission, and currently as Chair of CT Humanities.
