Trinity’s Science Gallery Wins Award for Best Cultural Institution

Posted on: 31 March 2011

Trinity College Dublin’s Science Gallery beat off competition from 422 other nominees to take the prize for Best Cultural Institution at the 3rd annual Shorty Awards in New York recently.  The awards honour the best producers of real time social media content on the web and are determined by a combination of popular vote and by the members of the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts and Sciences, comprised of leaders in technology, journalism, business and culture.

Science Gallery accepted the award with the following speech: “140 chars? A googolplexian characters couldn’t convey our gratitude. Thanks 4 making @ScienceGallery the place where art & science collide.”

Commenting on the win, Science Gallery’s Events and Community Manager, Ian Brunswick said: “With over 5,000 followers on Twitter, Science Gallery reaches out well beyond the walls of the gallery – it allows us to continue the conversation about what is happening in Science Gallery, in the world of science and art, and it helps us draw inspiration and ideas from our community on Twitter.  A big thank you goes to everyone who took the time to nominate us for this award.”

Speaking about the Science Gallery’s use of social media, Science Gallery Director Michael John Gorman said: “Cultural institutions now use new tools for listening to their communities.  We have been blown away by the power of Twitter to allow us to respond to ideas and the suggestions from our followers.  In fact one of Science Gallery’s most popular events – TEDxDUBLIN – came about following a comment on Twitter.  Within two weeks the speaker line up was finalised and all the tickets were snapped up in just over 10 minutes showing just how nimble we can be when we are using social media.”

People who nominated Trinity’s Science Gallery included comedian and member of Science Gallery’s Leonardo Group, Dara O’Briain, who said: “I nominate @ScienceGallery for a Shorty Award in #culturalinstitution because it’s the smartest Science museum I know.”

The next exhibition to showcase at the Science Gallery will be HUMAN+, an interactive exhibition experience looking at the future of the human race.  The exhibition will be launched during the forthcoming Trinity Week 2011 (11-15 April) and forms part of the celebrations to mark the tercentenary of Trinity’s School of Medicine.