Museums recognised at M+H Awards and Emya 2023

Museum sector achievements have been honoured in two separate award ceremonies in the UK and Spain.

On Wednesday the 2023 Museum + Heritage (M+H) Awards were announced at a ceremony in London.

Among the winners was the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, which received a Judge’s Special Recognition Award for its work to “document history in real time” throughout the Russian invasion.

The Scottish Crannog Centre won the Visitor Welcome Award, while the Folly Coffee House at the Museum of North Craven Life won Café or Restaurant of the Year.

Two winners shared the award for Sustainable Project of the Year: the Food Museum in Suffolk for its Hedgerow exhibition, and Bristol’s SS Great Britain for its Voyage to Carbon Neutral project.

National Museums Liverpool’s housekeeping team was named Team of the Year.

A full list of the winners across 18 categories can be seen on the M+H Awards website.

Meanwhile, L'Etno, the Valencian Museum of Ethnology, was named European Museum of the Year 2023 at an award ceremony in Barcelona earlier this month.

The Spanish museum was recognised for operating with a “strong ethical foundation and a passionate commitment to effecting positive change in the region”.

The only UK institution to be nominated, the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, received a Special Commendation, which honours new and innovative approaches in specific aspects of museums’ public service and from which other European museums can learn.

The Council of Europe Museum Prize, which is awarded to a museum that has contributed significantly to upholding human rights and democratic citizenship, went to the Workers' Museum in Denmark.

The Kenneth Hudson Award for Institutional Courage and Professional Integrity, which celebrates courageous, at times controversial, museum practices that challenge perceptions of the role of museums, went to Turkey’s 23,5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory for its work to communicate that human rights are indivisible and universal.

The Portimão Museum Prize for Welcoming, Inclusion and Belonging went to Chilleda Leku in Spain, while the Silletto Prize for Community Participation and Engagement was awarded to Otar Lordkipanidze Vani Archaeological Museum of Georgian National Museum, Georgia.

The Swiss Museum of Agriculture, which explores the resources required to grow food and the impact of food waste, won the Meyvaert Museum Prize for Environmental Sustainability.