Museums Shake off the Dust

2011, Unpublished/Personal Photography - Series: In Las Vegas there is a little known place called the Neon Museum where they have attempted to save signs from the old Vegas strip. These signs are a forgotten part of our culture. I spent a few hours documenting them. I remember seeing a few of them as a child when in Vegas on holidays, it's sad seeing them in a field, but nice to know they are being reclaimed and not completely forgotten. Photography: Michael Alberstat

The various Applied Arts Awards Programs have demonstrated time and again how well museums have rehabilitated their dusty, academic images, with great creative work in categories that cover design, advertising, photography, illustration and interactive. 

The big boys, including the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Museum of Civilization, have trumpeted new crowd-pleasing exhibitions, whether it's feathered dinosaurs and the origin of flight or a photo documentary of a cowboy festival in Quebec.

Other museums may highlight ever-important donors with a specially designed recognition and history wall, or use the latest computer technologies to create striking promotional posters, or provide a quirky home to Las Vegas neon signs.

Click above to see some samples of winning museum work. Or go to our Awards Archive directly and plug in "museum" as the search term.