Thackray Museum of Medicine among nominees for Emya2023
The Thackray Museum of Medicine is among 33 nominees for next year's European Museum of the Year Award (Emya2023).
The Leeds museum reopened in May 2021 following a £4m redevelopment that saw it create 11 new galleries detailing the story of healthcare through the ages.
The institution is the only UK nominee on this year’s Emya2023 longlist. Other institutions to receive a nod include the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion and Reconciliation in Berlin, Germany, and the Police Museum in Türkiye.
Switzerland was the country that received the most nominations this year, with seven institutions up for the award, including Cantonal Fine Arts Museum and the Museum of Verzasca Valley.
The annual Emya competition has been running since 1977. The awards recognise candidates that are either new museums, first opened to the public within the past three years, or established museums that have undergone substantial redevelopment.
In addition to the European Museum of the Year Award, the competition hands out five other prizes: the Council of Europe Museum Prize; the Kenneth Hudson Award for Institutional Courage and Professional Integrity; the Silletto Prize for Community Participation and Engagement; the Portimão Museum Prize for Welcoming, Inclusion and Belonging; and the Meyvaert Museum Prize for Environmental Sustainability.
The Council of Europe Museum Prize 2023 has already been announced as the Workers Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The other prizewinners will be revealed on the final day of the Emya 2023 Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony, which takes place in Barcelona from 3 to 6 May 2023.
The event is organised by the European Museum Forum and hosted next year by Museu Historia de Barcelona. Previous Emya winners include Museum of the Mind in the Netherlands (2022) and Stapferhaus in Switzerland (2020).
The last UK winner was London’s Design Museum in 2018.