Wood County Museum Film Wins Award

Local History News  |  Posted by: Tedd Long  |  06/13/2021

The Wood County Museum received a Gold Visual Communications Award from the Ohio Museum Association (OMA) for the video “The Making of Utopia.”  The OMA Awards program is an annual recognition of the outstanding achievement of Ohio museums in visual communications, individual and institutional achievement, and a celebration of the tireless work museum professionals undertake to help advance Ohio’s museum community both locally, and on a national level. 

The award-winning video, shot by local filmmaker and videographer Zak Kolhoff of Zak Films, records how “Utopia, A Visual Storytelling of Our Home,” the museum’s popular 2020 bicentennial exhibit, came to fruition. The Utopia exhibit tells the story of a young photographer, Taylor Houston Ayers, and her journey capturing more than 6,000 photographs over a three-year period. Taylor's images tell a visual story of Wood county and highlight its beautiful landscapes, vibrant cityscapes, and a multitude of back road barns and farm fields. The film was developed to help tell the story of the exhibit while the museum was closed due to COVID restrictions. This is the second award associated with this exhibit. It placed second in Toledo City Paper’s 2020 Best Art Exhibit.  

“Utopia,” which is still on exhibit at the museum, is sponsored by American Frame. An online digital gallery is also available at http://www.woodcountyhistory.org/exhibitutopia.html. The Wood County Museum is located at 13660 County Home Road in Bowling Green.