Overview
GFAA IS THE FIRST ANNUAL PROGRAM EVER CREATED TO RECOGNIZE THE BEST CURATED ART AND DESIGN EXHIBITIONS AND INSTALLATIONS WORLDWIDE.
The GFAA program honors innovation and excellence in exhibition design, historical context, educational value, and public appeal. This annual awards program recognizes the best curated fine art and design exhibited around the world- in museums, galleries, fairs, biennials and public installations.
A broad set of criteria is utilized to research and assess the prospective nominees, with continuous review of over 50 sources of print and online art editorial and critiques. Through these sources, more than 200 museums and 2,000 exhibitions are vetted during the annual art research as well as personalized assessments based on exhibition viewing.
In addition to the research-based nominations, GFAA accepts open calls from museums, biennials, fairs, galleries and other art organizations. Individual patrons may nominate their favorite exhibitions as well.The Nominating Committee reviews the slate prepared by the Art Research Committee, and presents their findings and final approvals to the Judges. The Judges modify and select the final slate of Nominees, then vote on the Finalists and Winners.
In 2016, 78 Nominees were selected, 32 (40%) are from the top 100 art museums visited in the world (April 2015, The Art Newspaper). The other 60% are from smaller institutions, independent projects, galleries, fairs and biennials.
Public opinion matters
Nominees and winners for the eleven awards are selected by a panel of expert judges. However, an integral aspect of the GFAA program is to engage the general public, and include their voice in the program results. Members of the general public vote online for their favorite nominee on the GFAA website. The most popular exhibition wins the final award -Youniversal.
An accessible global view of the best curated art and design exhibitions
The GFAA website serves the public as a digital platform to showcase an aggregated collection of the best exhibitions in the world.
Featured on the site are all of the nominees, arranged by award categories, with exhibition content and photographs, and hyperlinks to the website of the organizing institutions. Social media provides regular updates on the GFAA program, the nominees, and other art news; and elicits public opinion and participation.
The GFAA team produces curated videos for each of the Finalists, produced with unique music in a contemporary format, with no accompanying “curated voice” – leaving the audience to individually interpret the essence of the exhibit.
The videos are featured in the gallery section of the GFAA website, YouTube, and shown live at the awards ceremony.
How do we experience art?
Through the internet and digital media, we now access and experience so much global information- and this includes art.
The digital age provides both opportunities and risks for museums and other art organizations to grow their audiences. Digital representation of exhibitions, and artworks for sale through auction houses, galleries and online media companies, creates a completely global audience, and a unique curated experience.
However, nothing will ever replace the feeling and sensory experience of seeing exhibitions live.
Where else can we “see” and experience a virtual collection of the best exhibitions from around the world? As far as we are aware, nowhere else besides the GFAA program.
The Human Touch
An essential aspect of the GFAA program is connecting with the art community through events. The live announcement of the Nominees in London at the Ritz, the Finalists at the Baccarat Hotel in New York, and the Winners at the Award Ceremony (also in NYC) provides the ultimate platform to publicly celebrate the best curated art and design exhibits each year.
The beautiful work created by all of the Nominees is the focal point of each event, with the added production of sophisticated videos and customized music accompaniment for the Finalists and Winners. In doing so, we produce an entire “symphony” of great exhibitions – and recognize the many people who contributed to the creation these masterpieces.
There is so much to experience and share – and we believe that the GFAA program will help educate people around the world about art and its global messages.
From religion, war and politics, to love, lust, family and nature, the themes of life woven through art are as relevant today as they were from the beginning of time.
In many ways, this is reassuring. Or, at least it is to me.
Congratulations to all of the nominees, and thank you for your beautiful work.
Judy Holm, GFAA President and CEO
“Celebrating Great Exhibitions – Consider how hard art museum professionals work to conceive and organize their temporary exhibitions and installations of art and design, and also how much money their institutions spend to mount and tour them. Now ask yourself: how are the best of these projects honored, after the lights have dimmed and the loaned artworks have headed home?… Oddly, in a world teeming with award ceremonies for seemingly every possible artistic activity, there is no program that recognizes such exhibitions. Fortunately, … (this valued team) set about creating the Global Fine Arts Awards. “ Peter Trippi, Editor-in-Chief, Fine Art Connoisseur magazine (Sep 2015), GFAA Advisory Board and Judge Emeritus,