San Bernardino County Museum receives national recognition

San Bernardino County Museum was recently awarded four National Association of Counties Achievement Awards. The museum was recognized in the Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation for the following:

The first award was for responding to COVID through a digital ecosystem. The initiative speaks to the development of a robust repository of born-digital content for the public to access from the comfort of their homes, especially those residents living in vulnerable or low-income communities. It is designed as a one-stop-shop for all things digital and related to the San Bernardino County Museum.

The second award was for mining the museum for a small solutions to big problems which is a popular and modern method to curate an exhibition in which an outside artist/curator receives access to a museum’s collection to find consistent themes or objects to highlight in new ways.

The third award was for celebrating and teaching the digging sciences, a multidisciplinary event in which participants are educated on and engage in simulated archaeological and paleontological fieldwork. Participants learn about how to responsibly get involved in fieldwork, fill out simplified permit applications, excavate objects in a mock dig, and submit their finds to a repository for curation.

The fourth award was for activating an underused community asset with play. The Victor Valley Museum transformed an underutilized community space and brought it to life through the use of oversized building blocks and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, technology) programming.

“For the fifth year in a row, the San Bernardino County Museum has been honored by NACo with multiple awards for our programs and exhibits,” said David Myers, San Bernardino County Museum Director. “Always focused on our public service mission, the museum team is thrilled that our work has garnered this recognition, and humbled by the positive community impact that results from these efforts.”