TIFTON–Polly Huff, curator at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Georgia Museum of Agriculture, recently received two peer-reviewed Georgia Association of Museums (GAM) awards which spotlighted three of her 2021 Museum Gallery projects.
Presented at the annual GAM conference in Thomasville, the Special Project Award–Budget Category 1 went to a large research project completed by Huff on a special 1899 Harp Mandolin owned by the late Donna Hatcher, an ABAC art professor.
Huff followed a long trail of evidence to find that the instrument was one of five Style 18, Ebony guard harp mandolins sold on Oct. 21, 1899, by C.F. Martin of Nazareth, Pa., the only one of the five that survived.
Founded in 1833 and still in full operation today, the Martin Guitar Company made 22 of the instruments between 1895 and 1899. Huff collaborated on the project with a long list of museums across the country.
Two other Gallery endeavors prompted by the COVID pandemic won the Special Project–Budget Category2 Award. In the summer of 2020, Huff enlisted the help of Museum restoration specialist David King to design and hand-build a special capsule out of a centuries-old longleaf pine, which was cut down in Tifton during the pandemic.
Selecting the special lumber gave the project a sense of time, place, and meaning. The capsule was then filled with local historic artifacts representing life during the more than two years of the pandemic. The capsule was built to serve not only as a preservation “box” for those artifacts, but as a potential future exhibit.
Huff collaborated with ABAC’s School of Arts and Sciences, the ABAC Foundation, and the ABAC Alumni Association to curate and exhibit the second project titled “Beauty Amidst Trials: Capturing a Pandemic Year.”
Aiming for 35 to 50 entries, the exhibit wound up with 98 stunning photographs which depicted beautiful moments during the worst pandemic of our lifetime, as captured by local hobby photographers. The funds raised through the exhibit went to support the ABAC School of Arts and Sciences, and the Best of Show Award honored Hatcher.
Huff chaired and presented two sessions during the four-day conference and served as a mentor during the emerging museum professionals roundtable session. Named the 2020 Georgia Museums Professional of the Year, Huff is serving her third term on GAM’s Board of Directors.
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