Top honors awarded to Tampa Bay History Center for Cuban Pathways

(TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 6, 2022) — Tampa Bay History Center is pleased to announce they are a recipient of the 2022 Southeastern Museums Conference Gold Exhibition Award for Cuban Pathways. The SEMC Exhibition Competition showcases the best in our profession and provides benchmarks for regional exhibition efforts in southeastern museums.

Cuban Pathways is on exhibit now until Feb. 11, 2023, at the Tampa Bay History Center and tells the 500-year story through the lenses of individuals whose labor, political crusades, and search for refuge illustrate Cuba’s complex history.

“This is an incredible honor and recognizes our outstanding curatorial team,” said C.J. Roberts, President and CEO of the Tampa Bay History Center. “Cuban Pathways took two years to develop and includes more than 120 objects that tell the stories of our community’s deep connections with the island nation. We are proud to share these artifacts from our collection and extensive research with the Tampa Bay community and other museums in the Southeast and beyond.”

For many visitors, exhibitions are the public face of museums, and effective planning, management of resources, research and interpretation, collections care, public programs, publications, and fundraising all contribute to the fulfillment of a museum’s mission. Expectations and standards were exceptionally high for this year’s applicants. The SEMC Exhibition Competition received a record-breaking number of applications from a wide variety of museums across the southeast.

The Exhibition Competition recognizes exhibitions for overall excellence or for stretching the limits of content and design through innovation. Winning entries were well-designed exhibitions of merit with educational value and demonstrated respectful treatment of objects. Recipients of the awards were judged by an appointed jury of museum professionals across the region who specialize in curatorial studies and exhibition design.

Award winners will be celebrated at the 2022 Annual Meeting Awards Luncheon on Oct. 26, 2022, in Rogers, Arkansas, and the Fall 2022 Edition of INSIDE SEMC, a digital publication of the Southeastern Museums Conference. This designation recognizes Tampa Bay History Center’s contribution to professional standards in Southeastern museums.

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About the Tampa Bay History Center

Located on Tampa’s Riverwalk, the Tampa Bay History Center includes three floors of permanent and temporary exhibition space focusing on 12,000 years of Florida’s history and culture. A Smithsonian Affiliate museum accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the History Center includes the Touchton Map Library and Florida Center for Cartographic Education, and the Witt Research Center, and is home to the Columbia Cafe. One of Tampa’s premier cultural venues, the History Center’s hands-on, interactive exhibits and theaters provide an entertaining and educational experience for visitors of all ages. For more information, visit www.tampabayhistorycenter.org.

About the Southeastern Museums Conference

The Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC), a nonprofit membership organization, is an association of museums, museum staff, independent professionals, and corporate partners. We focus on the Southeastern United States including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands. For more information about the Southeastern Museums Conference, visit www.semcdirect.net.