Old Jail earns Wilder Award
The Old Jail Art Museum won the Mitchell A. Wilder Award for excellence in publication and media design in the Marketing Materials, Supplementary Materials, and Posters category at the 40th annual meeting of the Texas Association of Museums.
OJAC executive director Patrick Kelly was in attendance at the conference, and he accepted the Gold Citation certificate from TAM president Chris Dyer at the awards ceremony on Friday, April 5, in the Philanthropy Theater of El Paso’s historic Plaza Theatre.
The winning entry is a 20 by 28 inch West Texas Cultural Sites map illustrated by Dan Zettwoch and published by the OJAC.
“The idea was spawned by a map drawn by the same illustrator for an American Alliance of Museum meeting in 2017,” said Kelly. “We wanted to create a travel map that highlighted cultural sites and institutions in the ‘West’ part of Texas.”
The OJAC staff provided Zettwoch with the information and images he needed.
“We also included some ‘odd’ places and roadside attractions to make it interesting,” said Kelly. “He combined his own research with the information we sent to create three rough sketch concepts. After three or four revisions, we printed 7,500 and distributed an allocated amount to participating museums and institutions.”
The maps cost just $3 each at the OJAC, according to Kelly.
They can be ordered online at the museum’s website theojac.org for $3.25.
“The map includes ‘thematic’ icons for each point of interest and an informational listing on the back that includes information about the location, website, and contact information of participating institutions,” Kelly said. “I have met many people who said they picked up the map from other participating museums and complimented us on it. Some have ordered several to give as gifts to family and employees.”
Susan Montgomery submitted the completed map for the annual contest soon after she began her position as the Old Jail’s development and membership coordinator last summer.
The award was named in honor of Mitchell A. Wilder (1913-1979), the founding director of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth and one of the early advocates of excellence in museum publications.
The purpose of the TAM annual Mitchell A.Wilder Publication Design Award Competition is to promote the highest standards of graphic design and media production.
“The OJAC has won many Wilder Awards in the past 20-plus years, but not many in the ‘gold’ category,” said Kelly. “This project was designed to promote tourism in rural areas of West Texas by going “old school” and creating a fun and informative illustrated map. The map provides visitors of all ages a quick and enjoyable reference to museums, historic sites, offbeat roadside attractions, and other points of interest.”
Zettwoch is a cartoonist, illustrator, and printmaker living and working in St. Louis.
