National Museum of the Great Lakes Earns Top Honors from Ohio Museums Association
The National Museum of the Great Lakes (NMGL) recently earned two awards from the Ohio Museums Association, including Institution of the Year and Best Exhibition for Dark Waters.
The awards, part of OMA’s Awards of Achievement, recognize outstanding institutions and projects that demonstrate excellence and impact across Ohio’s museum community.
“This is a major milestone for our organization,” said Kate Fineske, Executive Director of the National Museum of the Great Lakes. “Being recognized for our first large-scale temporary exhibition and our overall growth and impact in 2025 shows the dedication of our team, partners, and supporters.”
The Institution of the Year award highlights NMGL’s momentum in 2025—a year of growth with a new five-year strategic plan and the opening of the Second Wave expansion. This expansion introduced new galleries and spaces for community conversations.
In 2025, NMGL also welcomed more than 32,000 visitors, its highest attendance in more than 80 years, and expanded its reach through new programming, including the 50th-anniversary weekend of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The events drew thousands from across the U.S. and Canada, generated over $100,000 in economic impact, and garnered national media coverage, including from The New York Times.
The Best Exhibition award honors Dark Waters: True Crime and Mystery on the Great Lakes, the museum’s first large-scale temporary exhibition. The exhibit explored compelling stories of crime, catastrophe, and unresolved mysteries across the Great Lakes through immersive storytelling, rare artifacts, and extensive regional collaboration.
Dark Waters attracted thousands of visitors and contributed to the museum’s record-breaking attendance. By blending maritime history with true-crime storytelling, the exhibition reached new audiences while deepening engagement among returning visitors. Developed in partnership with museums, historical societies, and private lenders across the region, the exhibit demonstrated NMGL’s growing capacity to produce bold, contemporary exhibitions.
Together, these recognitions highlight the National Museum of the Great Lakes’ evolution toward its vision of becoming the gathering place for Great Lakes conversations.
For more information about the National Museum of the Great Lakes, visit nmgl.org.
About the National Museum of the Great Lakes: The National Museum of the Great Lakes preserves, shares, and celebrates the past, present, and future of the Great Lakes story. As an interactive, experiential museum, we offer visitors the chance to explore thousands of years of history and stories through nine dynamic exhibit galleries—including a rotating temporary exhibition space—and two historic museum vessels, the Col. James M. Schoonmaker Museum Ship and the Museum Tug Ohio, plus the pilothouse of the storied St. Marys Challenger.
Founded in 1944 as the Great Lakes Historical Society, we have a long-standing commitment to education, research, and storytelling. Our initiatives include the publication of Inland Seas®, a quarterly journal of Great Lakes history since 1945, as well as decades of maritime preservation and archaeological exploration. Today, we strive to be the gathering place for Great Lakes conversations—welcoming all to connect with the stories, people, and innovations that have shaped and continue to influence this vital region.
