Two English museums nominated for European Museum of the Year Awards

Two English museums – Manchester Museum and the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich – are among 42 organisations shortlisted for the European Museum of the Year Awards (Emya) 2025.

Operated by the European Museum Forum, the awards were established in 1977 to acknowledge excellence and innovation within the European museum community.

They aim to recognise museums that promote inter-cultural dialogue and community participation, demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, and show creative and imaginative approaches to the production of knowledge.

Aside from the main prize, there are also categories for institutional courage and professional integrity; community participation and engagement; environmental sustainability; and welcoming, inclusion and belonging.

"This nomination means an awful lot to the whole team at Manchester Museum because it recognises our efforts to make this a place where everyone belongs,” said director Esme Ward.

“The museum’s redevelopment [completed in February 2023] was about much more than just bricks and mortar, it was about transforming our spaces and our approach to ensure we’re the museum our city and communities need us to be."

• Read Museum Journal’s review of Manchester Museum’s redevelopment

Under the directorship of Jago Cooper, the Sainsbury Centre has introduced a new approach to displaying and interpreting art by inviting audiences to connect on an emotional level. To mark its 50th anniversary in 2023, the venue become the first museum in the world to recognise art as being alive.

The art gallery, which like Manchester Museum is part of a major university, has also experimented with initiatives such as "pay as you feel" ticketing.

"We are thrilled that the European Museum of the Year Award judges have shown such interest and support for our radical Living Art approach at the Sainsbury Centre," Cooper said. "It was wonderful taking the judges through all of the innovations and alternative experiences at the Sainsbury Centre that we have developed over the last few years."

• Read more about the Sainsbury Centre’s new approach

The winners of Emya 2025 will be announced on 24 May at the annual conference and awards ceremony in Białystok, Poland. Organised by the European Museum Forum and hosted by the Sybir Memorial Museum in Białystok, the winner of the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 2024, the Emya 2025 Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony will bring together members of the community including former candidates, partners and friends, in addition to the nominee museums.

The award has previously seen seven UK winners, most recently the Design Museum in 2018. Last year, the Sámi Museum Siida in Finland won the prize.

The shortlist for the 2025 EMYA awards:

• Salon Stolz, Graz, Austria
• Wien Museum, Vienna, Austria
• Carl Nielsen Museum, Odense, Denmark
• Foundation Museum Ovartaci, Aarhus, Denmark
• Ensérune, Oppidum and Archaeological Museum, Nissan-lez-Ensérune, France
• National Navy Museum, Paris, France
• Savoisien Museum, Chambéry, France
• Deutschlandmuseum, Berlin, Germany
• Maria Callas Museum, Athens, Greece
• The House of Music Hungary, Budapest, Hungary
• Gallerie d’Italia, Napoli, Italy
• Gallerie d’Italia, Torino, Italy
• Het Loo Palace, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
• Open Air Museum Het Hoogeland, Warffum, Netherlands
• Museum Arnhem, Arnhem, Netherlands
• UMU – University Museum Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Miffy Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
• Coastal Express Museum, Stokmarknes, Norway
• Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, Łódź, Poland
• Museum of Photography in Kraków, Kraków, Poland
• Krzysztofory Palace, Museum of Kraków, Kraków, Poland
• “Under the Swan” Pharmacy, Department of the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum, Bydgoszcz, Poland
• Museum of Amber, Department of Museum of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
• Alvor Lifeboat Interpretation Center, Portimão, Portugal
• Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal
• Collective Memory Point, Vad, Romania
• House of the Volcanoes, Lanzarote, Spain
• Museum of Iberian Art El Cigarralejo, Mula, Spain
• The House of Architecture, Madrid, Spain
• House of the Basque Language. The Basque Language Interpretation Centre, Bilbao, Spain
• Medical History Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden
• Enter Technikwelt Solothurn, Solothurn, Switzerland
• Muzoo, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
• International Museum on the Reformation, Geneve, Switzerland
• Glacier Garden Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland
• Isbank Museum of Painting-Sculpture, Istanbul, Türkiye
• Bodrum Underwater Archaeology Museum, Bodrum, Türkiye
• Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul, Türkiye
• Korsak’s Museum of Ukrainian Modern Art, Lutsk, Ukraine
• Manchester Museum, Manchester, United Kingdom
• Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom