TORONTO.- The Royal Ontario Museum announced that the ROM-original exhibition Bloodsuckers: Legends to Leeches has been named an Overall Winner at the 32nd Annual American Alliance of Museums Excellence in Exhibition Competition. This prestigious honour recognizes outstanding achievement in the exhibition format from all types of institutions, including museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, and more.

“The ROM pursues excellence by exploring new exhibition practices, including transdisciplinarity. We consider the AAM award an acknowledgment that we are contributing to the museum field’s ongoing dialogue about best practices, which is all in the service of providing better experiences for our visitors,” says Jennifer Wild, ROM Deputy Director for Engagement.

Bloodsuckers: Legends to Leeches explores the fascinating science beneath the surface of history's most enduring legends. Drawing visitors into the world of the 30,000 species across the globe that use blood as a vital food source, the exhibition features live animals, larger-than-life displays, immersive installations, and touchable models.

The exhibition was acknowledged for its unique pairing of scientific and cultural content, focusing equally on the evolution, feeding mechanisms, and diversity of bloodfeeding species, as well as the enduring ways culture is inspired by them, from the medical practice of bloodletting to the folklore and evolving representations of vampires and the more recent Chupacabra. The judges noted that the project’s goal of science as culture and culture as science allowed the ROM’s team to “take something gory and turning it into something fascinating."

Bloodsuckers: Legends to Leeches is co-curated by Dr. Sebastian Kvist, evolutionary biologist and Curator of Invertebrates at the ROM, and Dr. Doug Currie, Vice-President, Department of Natural History and Senior Curator of Entomology at the ROM. Bloodsuckers’ interpretive planning is by Courtney Murfin, with exhibition design by Margot Thompson (graphics) and David Sadler (3D), multimedia by Scott Loane, and project management by Jason French.

The exhibition was on display at the ROM from November 16, 2019 to March 22, 2020.

Recognized alongside the ROM in the Overall Winner category is the National Geographic Museum, for its exhibition, Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Dr. Jane Goodall. The ROM was previously awarded an AAM Excellence in Exhibition award for the 1999 exhibition Dynamic Earth.