CAHOKIA MOUNDS CAPTURES NATIONAL MUSE AWARD

A Visit to the City of the Sun, three multimedia iPod Touch tours of the massive Cahokia Mounds World Heritage site grounds produced by Schwartz & Associates Creative, received the prestigious MUSE Award for excellence in the hand-held tour category during a champagne reception on Thursday, April 30 at the 2009 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. There to receive the award were Leah Joyce, Executive Director of the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society, and Bettie Schwartz, Executive Producer, Schwartz & Associates Creative. This year’s MUSE awards had approximately 250 entries from around the world spanning 12 different categories. The Cahokia tours won first place in the USA, second internationally.

The producers said of their entry: Approximately 300,000 visitors visit the Cahokia Mounds Interpretive Center each year, but other than a trip to the top of the largest mound, few tour the grounds. As a result, many of Cahokia's greatest stories are missed. Our project's goal was to encourage the general public to walk the outside trails and help them: understand the context of what they are seeing; orient themselves within the expansive space; relate different mounds, one to another; and experience the sights and sounds of the past through stories, visuals and soundtrack design. To meet our goal, three iPod Touch tours were created. At each stop, videos comprised of artists' interpretations of life nearly 1,000 years ago, photographs of archaeological finds, and animated reconstructions can be accessed. The tours are available in English, Spanish and German. Children's versions of the tours and online education units are in the planning stages.

The MUSE judges’ response to the entry: Strong visual style, good use of unifying graphics, map, and especially 3D animation to add back into the present landscape a pervasive sense of another time with historical information and hypotheses. Very well organized tour with good spatial sense. Breaks new ground in the difficult work of combining a traditional walking audio tour with a cutting edge AV tour.

The iPod Touch devices, each containing 1 and1/2 half hours of media, are available for checkout at the Cahokia Mounds Museum, 20 Ramey Street, Collinsville, Illinois. The fee is $5 for adults; $3 for children. Group rates are available.

ABOUT CAHOKIA MOUNDS

Cahokia Mounds is one of 20 World Heritage sites in the United States. Archaeologists call the Native Americans who built the giant earthen mounds the "Mississippians" … and Cahokia was their crowning achievement. At its peak, the population approximated 10- 20,000 with 120 mounds contained within its 6 square miles. This place … 8 miles east of St. Louis, MO and in Southern Illinois…is the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico.

PRESTIGIOUS MUSE MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD WON BY SCHWARTZ & ASSOCIATES CREATIVE

The Saint Louis Art Museum is pleased to announce that its Video iPod Multimedia Tour, "Remote Viewing: Invented Worlds in Recent Painting and Drawing,” produced by Schwartz and Associates Creative, received the American Association of Museum’s 2007 Silver MUSE Award in the museum tour category. Now in its 18th year, the MUSE awards competition recognizes outstanding achievement in museum media. The competition is an activity of the Media and Technology Standing Professional Committee of the AAM. More...

TOP CINE GOLDEN EAGLE AWARD FOR ANIMATED CHILDREN’S FILM GOES TO SCHWARTZ & ASSOCIATES CREATIVE

The 3-D animated film “Mary Engelbreit’s The Night Before Christmas,” produced by Schwartz & Associates Creative, was one of eight children’s films to receive the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle at the 2004 annual awards ceremony held in Washington, D.C. A classic in the making, the program continues to sell well at retail through the 2008 holiday season. The half-hour show brings Mary Engelbreit’s illustrated book of the classic Clement Moore “Twas the Night Before Christmas” poem to life through the eyes of the last creature stirring, a mouse not yet asleep. Actor Kevin Kline narrates the story. More...