Three Baltimore area museums are looking to “get out the vote” as they compete for recognition in USA Today’s annual 10Best Reader’s Choice travel awards for 2022.
The American Visionary Art Museum was nominated as a contender for Best Art Museum, the only Maryland museum so recognized.
Both the Walters Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art were nominated in the Best Free Museum category.
Contenders were selected by a panel of experts and notified this week. A person can vote once a day in different categories at USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards 2022 – Vote Now!
AVAM is competing against 19 other museums, including The Art Institute of Chicago; The Cleveland Museum of Art; the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C.
The Walters and the BMA are competing against 18 other contenders, including the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City; the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. and the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia.
Baltimore had no contenders in the categories of Best Pop Culture Museum; Best History Museum, Best Children’s Museum; Best Science Museum, Best Public Market or Best Farmers Market.
Voting began yesterday and ends on March 14. Winners will be announced on March 25 at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time.
According to the rules of the competition, contenders can encourage their supporters to vote, but they can’t offer prizes or other inducements to make them vote a certain way.
“Prior contests have been hotly contested,” the publication’s editors said in launching the competition and notifying contenders. “We look forward to seeing how you rock the vote in your community.”
