Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Awards for Excellence program seeks to recognize and commend exceptional efforts among the Network’s members. Awards are made to projects that exemplify creativity and professional vision resulting in a contribution to the preservation and interpretation of the historic scene, material culture, and diversity of the region.
The awards will be presented at the Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Annual Conference, “Taking Care: Well-being and the Museum Worker” on Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at Boscobel House & Gardens, Garrison, New York.
The 2023 Awards for Excellence are presented to:
Boscobel Community Tree Initiative
Boscobel House & Gardens
Garrison (Putnam County)
This Project Award recognizes the Boscobel Community Tree Initiative (BCTI), which celebrates history, sustainability, and community by planting trees. Major weather events and other environmental conditions, development, and economic challenges contributed to the reduction of the area’s historic tree canopy. The collaboration between Boscobel, Philipstown, Cold Spring’s Tree Advisory Board, landscapers, and local property owners planted two dozen native-species trees, and hopes to inspire and be a model for other communities, organizations, and families to create their own environmental preservation initiatives.
Fertile Ground: The Hudson Valley Animal Paintings of Caroline Clowes
Dutchess County Historical Society
Poughkeepsie (Dutchess County)
This Project Award is in recognition of the exhibition and program series in collaboration with Vassar College that explores the work, life, and legacy of a once-renowned but later lost Dutchess County female artist of the late 19th Century. Through sharing Caroline Clowes’s story, the exhibit connected essential themes for understanding New York state history, from the importance of family networks to the educational system in the state during Clowes’s formative years to the gendered dimension of artistic work and undertakings in her era.
Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932-1962
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Hyde Park (Dutchess County)
This Project Award is in recognition of the exhibition which offers critical perspectives on and candid assessments of the administration’s policies and practices, as well as the Roosevelts themselves. Focusing on the Great Depression and New Deal, through World War II, and the postwar Civil Rights Movement; the exhibit features archival materials and artifacts that document racism and discrimination in American politics and culture and highlight the contradictions inherent in fighting for democracy abroad while injustice persists at home.
Base Ball at the Orange County Driving Park
Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame
Goshen (Orange County)
This Project Award is in recognition of a community cooperative project that explores and celebrates local 19th-Century “base ball,” and the common ground it shared with the trotting sport. Concurrent exhibits at the museum and library, a lecture for adult learners, youth reading ventures, craft programs, and a free community event that included a live vintage baseball game, helped expand understanding of these two great sports and their shared historic landscape.
Immigrants of Northport & East Northport: Those Who Built and Continue to Build our Community
Northport Historical Society
Northport (Suffolk County)
This Project Award is in recognition of the exhibit that told the story of immigrants from 16 countries who made a lasting contribution to the areas around Northport and East Northport. Extensive research was done using Society records as well as interviews with the immigrants or their descendants told through photos, artifacts, and documents.
Immigrants of Northport & East Northport: Those Who Built and Continue to Build our Community
Northport Historical Society
Northport (Suffolk County)
This Publication Award recognizes the catalog accompanying the exhibition Immigrants of Northport & East Northport: Those Who Built and Continue to Build Our Community. Extensive research was done using Society records as well as interviews with the immigrants or their descendants to write the 37-page, full-color publication that incorporates the text and photos used in the exhibition. The catalog is filled with inspirational stories from the area detailing what these immigrants accomplished.
Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site Renovation & “Our Whole History”
Exhibit Reinterpretation
Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site
Yonkers (Westchester County)
This Project Award recognizes the $20 million reinterpretation and renovation of the Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site. The state-of-the-art exhibit and Virtual Wing incorporates the stories of the Indigenous people from whom the Philipse lands derive; African slaves, from whose work and trade the Philipse family prospered during the pre-Revolutionary era; and the family’s various journeys. The renovated museum includes a new wing with accessible bathrooms and elevators.
The Stanton-Anthony Symposium: Influential Women of the Hudson Valley
Putnam County Historian’s Office
Brewster (Putnam County)
This Program Award is in recognition of the symposium hosted by Brewster High School’s Women’s History Class and the Putnam County Historian’s Office. The symposium featured women from the Hudson Valley spanning multiple disciplines engaging in a series of student-led panels. The mutual exchange of ideas between generations of women of influence represented women’s history in the making, beyond what any textbook could offer.
Indigenous Peoples in Putnam County
Putnam History Museum
Cold Spring (Putnam County)
This Project Award recognizes an exhibition that includes a complementary student’s companion activity booklet and a series of public programming activities. The exhibit incorporates 30 interpretive panels featuring more than 40 artifacts and replicas representing the cultural heritage of the Wappinger and Lenape people in Putnam County. This project represents a significant step forward in interpreting and celebrating the diverse historical narratives that enrich the Hudson River Valley.
Artists and Immigrants: A Centennial Celebration at Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation
Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation
New York City (Manhattan)
This Project Award recognizes a multi-part project created by the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation to generate discourse on the significant contributions of immigrant artists like Gross and his circle of friends and fellow artists in New York. The series incorporated the stories of individual artists within the Foundation’s collection and related histories of migration by artists during the 20th century.
Re-creating a Local Landmark – The Old Bet Sculpture of Somers, NY
Somers Historical Society
Somers (Westchester County)
This Project Award recognizes a video that chronicles the work of Hudson Valley sculptor Luigi Badia as he crafts a new elephant sculpture for the deteriorating National Historic Landmark statue of Old Bet. The video includes a historical overview featuring photographs from Somers Historical Society collections. Filming and production was an entirely volunteer-driven effort that contributed to preserving and interpreting a historical scene, increased public awareness, and fulfilled the Society’s mission.
The Awards Ceremony and poster session featuring winning projects will take place at the 2023 GHHN Annual Conference. Registration is required. To register, click here.
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