The Tennessee Walking Horse National Museum in Wartrace received two awards March 21 from the Tennessee Association of Museums.

The Wartrace museum was honored with an Award of Excellence for superlative achievement for "Traveling Exhibit-Juvenile Riders" and an Award of Commendation in recognition for superlative achievement for "Temporary Exhibit-Parade of Saddles."

The Tennessee Association of Museums (TAM) awards ceremony was held at the recent statewide conference at the Latta Arts Center in Selmer, Tennessee. The TAM Awards of Excellence were presented to statewide museums for exceptional projects and events during 2017.

The purpose of the Excellence Awards is to recognize, encourage, and promote excellence within the activities of the Tennessee museum community. Nominations are made by museum staff and individuals and sent in January to the regional representative. Each entry is presented to the TAM Awards Committee which is composed of six regional representatives, three at-large representatives and the committee chair. The committee makes the final judging and decisions of awards. Awards are based on creativity, originality, resourcefulness, success, support of museum mission statement, and utilization of staff and volunteers.

"Each year TAM recognizes the projects and accomplishments achieved at Tennessee museums during the previous year. Regardless of staff size or budget, our museums are doing wonderful things that need to be recognized and applauded," said Tori Mason, Historic Site Manager at the Nashville Zoo, who served as this year's chair of the TAM Awards Committee. "The awards committee was once again impressed with the creativity, resourcefulness and commitment shown in all of the nominations. Our museums are doing amazing things."

"We are very proud of the exhibitions, events and educational programming that our Tennessee museums are producing," said Ken Mayes, Deputy Director at the American Museum of Science & Energy, who serves as the current TAM president. "Our state is fortunate to have so many excellent museums and historic sites that are committed to providing exceptional presentations for visitors to enjoy."