Tang's Classless Society web site wins international award

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery is proud to announce that its Classless Society interactive feature was awarded Best Small Museum Project on Friday night, April 4, in Baltimore at the annual Museums and the Web conference.

Classless Society, on exhibit at the Tang from Sept. 7, 2013 through March 9, 2014, investigated class from various social and economic perspectives. Among a number of topics, the show considered class mobility, the different ways that class is signaled, the reality of the American Dream, and the myths surrounding it in the United States of the 21st century.

The special online feature that complemented the gallery exhibition provides additional background and statistics. It also offers information about the artists and about how their work reflects the complex issues surrounding class status in our so-called classless society. The feature can be found here.

Museums and the Web is an international organization with more than 600 members from 40 countries who work at the intersection of museums and the digital world. The Tang was one of only 11 winners in the annual Best of the Web competition. Other winners this year include the Dallas Museum of Art, for innovation; the Imperial War Museums and National Archives of Great Britain, for use of collections; and the Museum of Modern Art, for education.

“This award recognizes how the Tang lives up to its mission by confronting important ideas through art from an interdisciplinary perspective,” said the Tang Museum’s Dayton Director Ian Berry. “Special recognition must go to Vickie Riley, the Tang's digital resources content producer, and to Joe Klockowski, an art major in Skidmore’s Class of 2014.” Together, they developed the online feature last summer by blending data, as well as audio and video of personal stories compiled during a “Classless Society Stories” project.

Classless Society was curated by Janet Casey, professor of English, Skidmore College; Mehmet Odekon, professor of economics, Skidmore College; Rachel Seligman, assistant director for curatorial affairs, Tang Museum; and John Weber, founding director of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, University of California at Santa Cruz.

The full list of credits for the online feature follows:

Contributors and consultants: Janet Casey professor of English, Skidmore College; Mehmet Odekon professor of economics, Skidmore College; Rachel Seligman assistant director for curatorial affairs, Tang Museum; John Weber founding director of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz; Jenna Postler, curatorial intern, Tang Museum

Design and production: Vickie Riley, digital resources content producer, Tang Museum; Joe Klockowski, Classless Society web site designer, Tang Museum

Audio recordings: Gregory Carter, audio engineer; Chris Franzini, audio engineer;

Frank Moskowitz, audio engineer

Editorial: Susi Watts Kerr, former senior museum educator, Tang Museum; Jay Rogoff, independent editor; Megan Hyde, curatorial assistant, Tang Museum

Graphs: Joe Klockowski, Classless Society web site designer, Tang Museum

Research: Susi Watts Kerr, former senior museum educator, Tang Museum; Sophie Matyas, curatorial intern, Tang Museum; Jenna Postler, curatorial intern, Tang Museum; Beatrice Moller, education intern, Tang Museum; Liz Porfido, education intern, Tang Museum; Brett Hartman, digital resources intern, Tang Museum

Class Action for Skidmore Students (student organization)

Video: Brett Hartman, digital resources intern, Tang Museum; Sophie Matyas, curatorial intern, Tang Museum

Special thanks: Anthony Holland, associate professor of music, Skidmore College; participants in the Classless Society Stories Project; Class Action for Skidmore Students; Skidmore Office of Alumni Affairs

The Classless Society web feature was generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Friends of the Tang.