Richard Martin Exhibition Awards

About this program

The Costume Society of America offers the Richard Martin Exhibition Awards to recognize excellence and innovation in costume exhibitions across three categories—Large (budget > $100,000), Small (≤ $100,000), and Student-led/student-driven—with winners receiving a certificate, invitation to present at the next CSA National Symposium, and a $900 travel stipend plus day-of-presentation registration. Eligible exhibitions (physical or virtual) must be mounted at a museum, historical society, historic house, academic department, or site applying museum standards, include at least 60% costume artifacts, and have been presented within the 15 months prior to 2025-10-15; applicants may apply to only one category. Nominations must be submitted by a CSA member of the exhibition team as a single PDF (<100MB) via the CSA online form by 1 November 2025 and must include institution information, an exhibition overview, curatorial research, programming, design, and artifact handling sections adhering to specified word/page/image limits; curators who received the award in the past three years are ineligible (except faculty/professional mentors of student-led exhibitions). Nominees will be notified in mid-January 2026 and winners announced at the CSA National Symposium.