The Heckscher Museum of Art has been awarded the Engaging Communities 2025 Award of Distinction, one of only 14 awards presented by the Museum Association of New York (MANY), recognizing the Soundwalk at the Arthur Dove and Helen Torr Cottage.
The Engaging Community awards celebrate organizations that use exceptional and resourceful methods to engage their communities and build new audiences. For the Soundwalk, that included a collaboration with Girls Inc. Long Island which engaged middle-school students into the design process. An Accessibility Advisory Group was assembled to provide advice and expertise, including incorporating braille, 3D 
tactile maps and signage into the project, ensuring the Soundwalk would be as accessible as possible to those with vision impairment. One of the most important and unique aspects of this project became the utilization of community centered design principles with emergent technology to increase access to the arts and historic spaces.
This is the second award for the exciting Soundwalk project, which received an Award of Excellence from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network.
“The Museum Association of New York is honored to recognize this year’s Award of Distinction recipients, whose dedication, innovation, and leadership continue to elevate the museum field across New York State,” said Sheila McDaniel, Interim Executive Director. “We celebrate their achievements and the innovative ways museums and their staff are embracing creativity and driving meaningful institutional change
Museums, museum professionals, and industry partners will be recognized for their exceptional achievements at Museums, museum professionals, and industry partners will be recognized for their exceptional achievements at MANY’s 2025 annual conference “Cultivating Community: Looking In, Reaching Out” in Ithaca, New York this April. The fourteen awards celebrate unique leadership, dedicated community service, transformational visitor experiences, community engagement, and innovative programs that use collections and resources to support museums and to tell stories of everyone who calls New York home.
The Dove/Torr Soundwalk was created with support from a Dorothy C. Radgowski Learning Through Women’s Achievement in the Arts Grant, a joint effort of Where Women Made History (WWMH), and Historic Artists Homes & Studios (HAHS) at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Special thanks to Susan Buroker, Evangeline Knell, Girls Inc. Long Island, Monica Ortiz-Menier, Helen Keller National Center, and the Heckscher Museum Accessibility Advisory Group for their work on the project. Tactile Maps and Signage were created and installed for this project at Heckscher Park and the Dove/Torr Cottage with generous grant support from the Town of Huntington Environmental Open Space & Park Fund Advisory Committee.
