Congratulations are in order. Two recent publications by Museum of Art staff have recently won national awards.

First, the illustrated catalogue for Paul Thek: Diver, A Retrospective won a 2011 “IPPY” Independent Voice Award from Independent Publisher, as part of its 2011 Outstanding Books of the Year initiative. More than 4,000 books were submitted from nine countries. The Independent Publisher holds the competition to “recognize and encourage the work of publishers who exhibit the courage and creativity necessary to take chances, break new ground, and bring out change to the world of publishing and to society.”

Diver was co-authored by Elizabeth Sussman of the Whitney Museum of American Art and Lynn Zelevansky, The Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art, who together organized the first major traveling exhibition of Thek’s work. Notably, Diver shared the Independent Voice Award with another Whitney publication, Glenn Ligon: America, by Scott Rothkopf. It’s thrilling to be in such outstanding company.

The Museum of Art’s 2009 annual report also won a design award from the American Association of Museums (AAM). The annual report, designed by Wall-to-Wall Studios, won second place in the category of annual reports for institutions with budgets greater than $750,000. Congratulations to the publications department at the museum for compiling and editing the 2009 annual report, and to creative director Larkin Werner and designer Bill Krowinski of Wall-to-Wall Studios.