American Visionary Art Museum seeks votes to top USA Today's 'Best Art Museum' ranking
BALTIMORE -- The American Visionary Art Museum is asking for help to top USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards for best art museum.
The "10 best" list is decided by voters through USA Today's website. This is the third straight year that AVAM has been nominated in the "Best Art Museum" category.
Polls close for the awards on Monday, February 19 at noon EST, and readers are able to vote once a day. The winning museums will be announced on Friday, March 1.
AVAM is the only Maryland museum nominated in the "Best Art Museum" category. The last two years, AVAM was voted second in the category.
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.
