7 Museums Enter, 1 Museum Leaves…

The Museum Dance Off 5: The Last Dance Thunderdome Champion is…

South Canterbury Museum of Timaru, NZ!

Congratulations, South Canterbury Museum! You created an amazing video and survived some fierce competition levels to take this honor home. Your community rallied for you and everyone should be incredibly proud of your staff and your museum right now.

Everyone who got to Thunderdome should be incredibly proud of their efforts, and I would give you a big congratulatory hug if internet technology would figure out a way for me to do that. There were more than 142,000 votes cast in 24 hours - each one of those votes is your communities loving you and being proud of you.

We have some additional awards to announce!

PEOPLE’S CHOICE: this award goes to the museum who was eliminated prior to Thunderdome, but was still so outstanding among the competition that it was selected from among its peers to deserve special recognition. And the People’s Choice Award goes to… Burlesque Hall of Fame, Las Vegas, NV!

COMMUNITY AWARD: This award goes to the museum that not only produced an outstanding dance off video, but who best embodies the comeradery, spirit, and collegiality of Museum Dance Off. We selected The Rockwell Museum of Corning, NY because whenever we logged into social media and followed the #mdo5 hashtag, we saw The Rockwell Museum give nothing but love to all of the other museums in the competition. That’s the way the internet should be. That’s the way museums should be: Supportive, enthusiastic, genuinely celebrating the success of peers, and sincerely consoling but encouraging any voting setbacks. You’re good people, The Rockwell Museum.

JUDGE’S CHOICE AWARDS: There are 3 winners in this category, because it’s impossible to pick just one. These are the videos that were eliminated in early rounds that we think deserve more regonition. And the winners, in no partcular order, are… (click the links for videos, tumblr won’t let me embed any more!)

Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, NY - What can we say. This video slayed us. slayed us dead. The awkwardness. The spot-on parody of our lives. the sweatbands! How this video didn’t get more votes is beyond us, but it gets the Judge’s Choice award for creativity, fun, relevancy, and making us laugh.

Air Force Museum of New Zealand, Christchurch, NZ: Again, at a loss for words. Stormtroopers! Horse-things! Coordinated marches! Jazz hands! This one was one of our faves from this year.

Everhart Museum of History, Science and Art, Scranton, PA: We’re suckers for The Office, and this video was just D E L I G H T F U L. It wasn’t just the parody, it was how the Everhard adapted their own spaces, collections and personalities to make it their own. To paraphrase Dwight Schrute, “Beets. Bears. Everhart Museum. Battlestar Galactica.”

MUSEUM NARRATIVE AWARD: This is the award that makes us say, “I want to go to there. I want to go to there right now.” The video that best captures and expresses the museum’s mission, collection, and energy. Honestly, every entry in MDO5 in on this list. However, there were two particular stand-outs:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC: their gorgeous exploration of their space and collection, the beatiful filming and choreography (and drone work?) with the behind the scenes look at their staff and installations have us booking a train ticket to DC ASAP.

First Division Museum at Cantigny Park, Wheaton, IL: This museum has been a standout with every entry, but this year’s focus on women in the military and what they have contributed, the sacrifices they’ve made, and the obstacles they’ve overcome…well, let’s just say it got real dusty in here real quick.

CREATIVITY AWARD: This award goes to the museum that impressed up with not only their slick dance moves, but their creative approach to the challenge and how well it ties back to their mission and collection. Hands down, this year unanimously goes to the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, AUS.

Now, to everyone who has danced, voted, or helped with Museum Dance Off for the last 5 years:

Thank you.

Thank you for five amazing years of this competition. Thank you for loving the idea and using your time, energy and resources to create amazing videos that connected museum-lovers all around the world. Thank you for bringing some light to the Swamp of Sadness known as the internet.

You’re all the best, and I love you for being a part of this.

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, this is the last Dance Off as we know it. 5 years is a long time and a lot of life changes. Considering the internet has an attention span of 30 seconds, the fact that we’ve gone on this long is astounding. While this is the last Dance Off, we’re looking at ways to reboot it in another form that is more manageable and sustainable. Stay tuned.

Love,

Maggie