American Visionary Art Museum Seeks Votes To Top USA Today's 'Best Art Museum' Ranking
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The American Visionary Art Museum is asking for help to top USA Today's 10Best Reader's Choice Awards for best art museum.
The "10 best" list is decided by voters through USA Today's website. AVAM said it was number one on the list for a week straight, but it has since slipped to third place, beneath the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Polls close for the awards on Monday, March 14 at noon, and readers are able to vote once a day. The winning museums will be announced on Friday, March 25.
Most Baltimoreans know the AVAM -- founded in 1984 -- for quirky art, its shimmering exterior and giant whirligig. But the center has a deeper message. The museum honors visionary, self-taught artists.
"Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself," the museum said on its website.
Two DC art museums are in the running as well. As of Feb. 23 the National Gallery of Art sits at number 9, and the National Museum of African Art sits at number 17.
