NEMA 2021 Excellence Awards
People are what make our museums great, and NEMA’s members are some of the most talented and dedicated people in the field. NEMA is proud to honor our colleagues’ extraordinary effort and commitment to the New England museum community.
Congratulations to the winners of NEMA’s Excellence Awards Competition!
NEMA is pleased to announce the winners of the eighth annual Excellence Awards competition. This year's awardees will receive recognition at the Annual Meeting at this year's conference. Special thanks to those who submitted nominations and to our judges, and congratulations to this year's Excellence Award winners!
Marie Beam
Marie Beam, Discovery Museum’s Chief Development Officer since 2013, stepped up to the challenge of finding innovative ways to fill budgetary gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic, adeptly supporting the organization during one of the toughest times in its 40-year-history. Always putting families’ needs first, Marie pitched a bold idea: that the Museum offer free admission to everyone for one month upon re-opening, despite the pandemic’s steep toll on the Museum’s revenue. In total, the August 2020 “Free to Play'' month provided no-charge fun to more than 4,500 people from 200 communities across the region. To make up for lost revenue, the Museum increased its 2020 annual fund goal by 20%, a target she exceeded. In a typical year, 70% of the Museum budget is funded by admissions and school program revenue, with 30% coming from gifts and grants. In 2020, under Marie’s leadership, the Museum flipped those percentages. The Museum was thus able to re-open earlier than many, without layoffs, and remain open for the duration. Under her guidance, the six-figure “Bridge to the Future” campaign was fully funded by May 2021, allowing the Museum to continue advancing its goals for environmental sustainability and DEAI as it slowly began to rebound from the financial impact of being closed for 4.5 months. Through it all, Marie led her team of three with compassion and understanding.
<p">A twenty-five-year veteran of non-profit development, Marie came to the Museum from the Fay School, where she was Director of Advancement. Prior to that she served as Director of Major Gifts and Campaigns at Simmons College, her alma mater (now Simmons University), and as Assistant Director of Alumni and Development at St. Sebastian’s School. Marie is a proud member of the Board of the MetroWest Nonprofit Network and an instructor in the Network’s 2021 Nonprofit Management Certificate Program for Practitioners. 
Carole Charnow
Carole Charnow was appointed the President and CEO of Boston Children’s Museum in 2010 and has transformed the Museum’s access programs, community outreach and cultural and science programming. During her tenure, the Martin Richard Park opened adjacent to the Museum, a 1.5 acre, first-of its-kind accessible park and playground, and the Museum introduced New England’s first groundbreaking museum access program for families receiving benefits, the EBT Discount Program, which is now being replicated in 160 museums and cultural institutions across the Commonwealth. Under her leadership the Museum won the IMLS National Medal, the nation’s highest honor conferred on museums for extraordinary service to the community, presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House in 2013.
Under Carole’s leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Museum focused on two transformations in parallel. The first was continuing to reach children and families beyond the walls of the Museum through innovative curriculum and content, combined with technological delivery mechanisms. The second was creating a safe environment for the eventual return of visitors and personnel to their waterfront site for continued hands-on interactions with exhibits and programs. She leads by example—taking pay cuts during times of crisis like COVID -- and she goes above and beyond to ensure that staff members are treated fairly. She has a deep commitment to ensuring that all families—no matter their socioeconomic, developmental, or physical challenges—can visit the Museum. She also started a podcast to help support families and provide them with resources during the pandemic. Carole epitomizes an exemplary supporter, role model, leader, team member, and mentor.
For over 30 years, Carole has led cultural non-profits in the US and the UK. She served as a member of the Mayor’s Cultural Plan Steering Committee and was named a Barr Fellow in the class of 2015. She is a recipient of the Emerson College Distinguished Alumni Award, the Berklee College Urban Service Award and serves on the Board of The Dimock Health Center, Boston Arts Academy, the Green Ribbon Commission and the American Alliance of Museums. Carole co-chairs the Boston Arts Leaders Coalition, is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Non-Profit Practice at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Emerson College and a Masters of Arts from the University of London.
Maryann Gubala
Maryann Gubala is the Social and Content Producer at Old Sturbridge Village. She has played key roles in developing and growing the Village’s digital content assets and Virtual Village, creating and analyzing surveys, and internal video production. Maryann’s commitment to excellence in the museum field is demonstrated through her deep knowledge of living history and her daily work in the communications department, representing Old Sturbridge Village and its values as she embodies the voice of the museum. For over six years (including her first year at the Village as an intern), Maryann Gubala has immersed herself in all things Old Sturbridge Village, living history, and the museum sector in general. She literally wears 10 hats and somehow manages to go above and beyond in all of her roles. During COVID, Maryann was the first to raise her hand to find new ways to connect with our audiences while we were in shut-down mode. Partnering with one of our interpreters, Maryann started creating video shorts to push out on social media. Her efforts quickly evolved into "Virtual Village" which has become our platform for delivering all online content to our stakeholders and now includes video shorts and longer formats, webinars, 3D tours, DIY demonstrations, virtual education camps, and much more.
Following graduation from Western New England University with a BA in Communication in 2016, she was hired full time as a Marketing Specialist and later promoted to Community and Content Coordinator in 2019. Growing up, she spent many days and weeks at youth programs at Storrowton Village Museum and loved learning about how everyday people lived in the past. In her free time, she volunteers as Regional Coordinator for Sew Powerful and enjoys crafting, sewing, writing, studying Spanish, exploring nature, and listening to music.
Julie Garvin Riggs
Julie Garvin Riggs, Manager of Youth Education & Outreach at the Florence Griswold Museum, is a passionate advocate for the power of the arts to bring joy and healing into every life. As the Museum’s lead educator since 2009, Julie provides each student with art-making experiences that build their confidence and channel their unique creativity. A graduate of the Art Institute of Atlanta and a specialist in children’s illustration, she is an enthusiastic leader on-site of hundreds of elementary school field trips; programs for homeschoolers and Scout troops; summer camp for 1st- 8th graders; and non-stop programming during the ever-popular Wee Faerie Village installation each October. Seeking to enfold those who think art is for “other people,” Julie is actively growing our outreach program, taking Museum materials and instruction directly to Alzheimer’s patients, Head Start preschools, children living with cancer, victims of domestic violence, at-risk teens, Navy wives, and the elderly. She lovingly provides arts therapy at a local homeless shelter and – despite the language barrier-- inspires immigrant students learning English at a local adult education center with warm, inclusive teaching. Julie embodies excellence in museum education by making art-making experiences fun, accessible, and personally meaningful to everyone she encounters.
Riggs began her art career in fashion illustration and design at The Art Institute of Atlanta earning an associate’s degree. She then went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising at New England College in both Henniker, New Hampshire and Arundel-Sussex, UK. Riggs traveled extensively while in Europe and was offered a job with Club Med, teaching tennis and windsurfing in Mexico. When Julie returned to the states, she was called on to rejoin the family business and oversee programs and retail. Ten years and three children later, she was called on to fill a sudden vacancy at the Florence Griswold Museum in art education, which she happily agreed to. Now a solid 13 years in, she says, “My work is a labor of love and so incredibly rewarding. I am forever thankful for the opportunities I have had.” Julie currently lives in Old Lyme with her husband and son. When she’s not making art, she loves competitive sailing, tennis, and skiing.
Erin McGough
Erin McGough is Executive Director for the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society (DRHS) in Duxbury, Massachusetts, a position she has held for eight years. Under her leadership, in 2019 the DRHS won a Leadership in History award from the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) for its project to “Re-imagine Bradford,” a re-interpretation of the Bradford House Museum. She has vision. She mastered the challenge of staying in touch with members and the town during the COVID-19 pandemic by digitizing our programs, raising our outreach as far as Hawaii and the West Coast. She took history into the town itself, partnering with local businesses and organizations with large "YOU ARE HERE" story-telling panels, making the whole town a museum. The result has been a spirit of pride and special meaning in every neighborhood. Erin broadened our outreach and membership creating an interactive, visually evocative website and produces a vibrant newsletter showcasing DRHS programs and collections three times a year. One recent accomplishment, vital to the organization’s mission and collections, was to draw on the experience of the Board and Investment Committee, setting up a proactive program funding long term capital repair/improvement needs of our properties that will preserve our collection and the legacy of the historic properties. She sets an expectation of fairness and completeness that resonates throughout the organization.
A 20-year museum professional, Erin fell in love with collections management at an early age, and she enjoyed early training experiences in the conservation labs at the Peabody Museum at Harvard, and the Registrar’s departments at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian's American Art Museum, and the Muscarelle Museum in Williamsburg, VA. Erin has a M.A. in Art History and Museum Studies from Tufts University and a B.A. in Art History from the College of William and Mary. In 2020, she completed a certificate in Professional Fundraising from Boston University. In 2015, Erin was named a “Woman of Influence” by South Shore Living Magazine. Erin is past chair of the Back Roads of the South Shore, a consortium of cultural organizations. She is a current board member of the Massachusetts History Alliance and has been a Peer Reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums’ Museum Assessment Program (MAP) since 2009.
Allison Shilling
Allison Shilling is the Senior Program Officer at the Concord Museum. Since January 2019, she has been responsible for overseeing all adult and family programming. In her first year on staff in 2019, she single handedly produced 24 eblasts (2 per month) that were viewed 103,312 times. They included videos of the Museum’s curator, associate curator, and educators; mini-gallery talks; artifact highlights, and family/educational activities on topics from the Revolution, Thoreau, to suffragettes. Allison also led the technical effort to convert the Concord Museum Forums to a virtual format. During the pandemic, the Museum has hosted 44 forums (averaging three a month) that attracted over 15,000 viewers (and two re-aired on C-SPAN to countless others). The virtual format has allowed us to have conversations with national leaders and historians including the Archivist of the United States, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the first (and only) female Governor of Massachusetts, the first female Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the president of the American Historical Association, and author/historians such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Annette Gordon Reed, Samantha Power, Jill Lepore, Danielle Allen, Laura Walls, and dozens more. Allison also produced our new April 19, 1775 exhibit opening with over 3,000 virtual attendees.
Lastly, this summer, Allison orchestrated a five-week live, interactive “Master Class” entitled Decorative Arts Sampler. Each one-hour live class (attended by upwards of 40 attendees) featured our curators highlighting a sampling of ceramics, furniture, silver, and textiles from our collection. Executive Director Tom Putnam says, “It is difficult to quantify how transformational Allison’s efforts have been. As an emerging museum professional and tireless advocate for providing access to wider audiences through virtual formats, she is exceptional.” Allison additionally serves as the Senior Membership Officer, Board Liaison, and Special Projects Manager for the Concord Museum and is the new chair of NEMA’s Membership, Development, Public Relations, and Marketing PAG.
Douglas Stark
Douglas Stark was appointed Museum Director of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in June 2008. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to fulfill the Hall’s mission to preserve, celebrate, and inspire. Through the lens of sports and sports history, he has created not just museum engagements, but public forums for important contemporary conversations about race, gender, and social justice. He fully understands and appreciates the role sport plays as a form of cultural expression and an agent for social change. As Director, Doug has emphasized the preservation of the museum building, the renowned National Historic Landmark Newport Casino, leading a $3 million renovation to improve visitor experience and developing a comprehensive interpretive plan for the historic structure, collections, and seven-acre campus. This work included award-winning programs on architectural history and design, adding significantly to the museum’s educational themes. His efforts to enhance programming on sports and social history, as well as designing expanded digital access to the collections, have extended the museum’s reach and sustained its community connections during the pandemic. Importantly, Doug secured national recognition for the ITHF with accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (2013-present), becoming the first sports museum to be accredited. He then added another first for an independent sports hall of fame with the prestigious Smithsonian Affiliate recognition (2017-present). These distinctive contributions to the field are built upon early career achievements strengthening sports museums for basketball and golf.
A graduate of Brandeis University with advanced training at New York University and UMass Amherst, Doug has focused on elevating sports museums, increasing their capacity and reach, and using the history of sport to inspire curiosity and understanding. As a speaker and teacher, he has elevated the history of sports, offering a window into overlooked individuals, groups, and moments. In addition, Doug is a dedicated historian. His books—seven and counting—and extensive roster of scholarly and popular articles show him to be a thoughtful leader in the public discourse. Noting their ability to influence individual achievement, community building, and social action, Doug sees sports history as an opportunity to engage new audiences within museum settings. He is co-editing a forthcoming volume, Interpreting Sports at Museums and Historic Sites, that will provide a comprehensive guide on incorporating sports history in an interpretative plan. As former President of the NEMA, Doug has represented New England museums on an important national stage, building collaborations and networks for advocacy across six states.