The Bridgemaker Prize
The Bridgemaker Prize recognizes museums that best embody the mission and values of Art Bridges through exceptional art sharing and community engagement. Through this initiative, we aim to increase visibility of Art Bridges’ programs at exemplary partner institutions, strengthen relationships with our museum partners while showcasing their impact, and inspire museums nationwide to push boundaries, build stronger communities, share their collections more broadly, and champion the transformative power of art.
Year Two
In this second year of the prize, we are highlighting audience growth and meaningful engagement. Partner museums are invited to self-nominate by responding to one of three categories:
- Engagement: Meaningful and sustained growth in expanding access and engagement with a key community audience
- Growth: Increased annual attendance driven by art sharing and community engagement partnerships with Art Bridges
- Innovation: Pioneering programs supported by Art Bridges funding that reach new audiences and demonstrate lasting impact
The Prize
The winner(s) will receive an award of up to $150,000 to support future projects in alignment with Art Bridges’ mission. In addition to the monetary prize, recipients have the opportunity to spotlight their work across our digital platforms—expanding their reach and inspiring museums nationwide to push boundaries, foster dialogue, and champion the power of art.
*1 to 3 winners will be selected based on the quality of self-nomination.
Eligibility Requirements
- Must have completed their annual Partner Profile
Before You Begin
- Only one person from each institution can submit a nomination.
- This application cannot be saved and revisited. Please prepare to submit the application once entered into the portal.
- Your institution must have completed a Partner Profile. To check your profile status, please contact our Partnerships Team at partnership@artbridgesfoundaton.org.
Selection Process
All partners are evaluated by Art Bridges staff using mission-aligned criteria, ensuring a fair and structured assessment based on impact, innovation, and alignment with Art Bridges values.
Partners and their collaborative projects with us are assessed based on the following:
- Mission Alignment – How well their project(s) reflect Art Bridges’ goal of delivering access to meaningful experiences, fostered through various facets of personal and community wellbeing
- Reach – How well their project(s) increase art access, engage new and/or established audiences, and demonstrate long-term sustainability
- Innovation – How well their project(s) exemplify creative risk taking in the field through pilot initiatives
Hudson River Museum
Over the course of its seven-year partnership with Art Bridges, community engagement award recipient Hudson River Museum has collaborated with the foundation on 37 total projects, attracting visitors from throughout the New York region and 45 states in 2024 alone. Projects have comprised Access for All programming, several partner loans, and collaborations with Art Bridges’ Learning & Engagement team. "Art and Identity" inaugurated the partnership, bringing outstanding figurative works from the Art Bridges Collection to the museum to explore artistic depictions of identity across centuries. The partnership was further strengthened by the museum’s debut of "Free First Fridays," which activates the HRM with dynamic performances, hands-on art making, and immersive experiences. Most recently, HRM has collaborated with Art Bridges on "Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time," a groundbreaking exhibition that explores memory and time with works by 22 contemporary Native and Indigenous artists.
Peoria Riverfront Museum
Since 2019, community engagement award recipient Peoria Riverfront Museum has worked with Art Bridges on 20 projects, including the loans of more than 100 individual works from the Art Bridges collection and other national collections. Art Bridges projects have impacted around a million visitor experiences including nearly 100,000 in the museum's Every Student Initiative. The collaboration has allowed the museum to broaden the scope of its work. For example, the museum’s first project with the foundation, "Vantage Points: Contemporary American Photography" on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, was its first contemporary photography exhibition. Through its work with Art Bridges, the museum has also been able to more extensively showcase its uniquely regional offerings. The Illinois River Valley, where PRM is situated, is historically home to some of the most remarkable Midwestern carvers, and the museum’s Center for American Decoys honors this particularly American folk art by collecting, exhibiting, studying, and sharing world-class decoys. "Masterworks," which opened in 2024, includes 47 decoys on loan from New York’s American Folk Art Museum, made possible by the Art Bridges Partner Loan Network.
Spelman College Museum of Fine Art
Art sharing award recipient Spelman College Museum of Fine Art has leveraged Art Bridges support to tour "Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection." Showcasing Spelman’s permanent collection, "Silver Linings" highlights the legacy of artists of African descent spanning the twentieth century through the contemporary moment. This exhibition is critical to understanding the importance of art collecting within Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and includes work by Black artists who have been overlooked by mainstream art museums. The exhibition toured with a slate of educational programming, including lectures by museum Director Liz Andrews at the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Over the course of its tour, the exhibition has seen an estimated total attendance of more than 112,300, with around 29,500 participants in related programming. Spelman will be opening a new gallery space this fall, and the Bridgemaker Prize will help the museum to expand and stay open during the summer for the first time.
