In just 21 days the Monday 1 February deadline for the Museums + Heritage Awards will have passed and out of the hundreds of submissions from museum and heritage attractions across the UK and internationally, the 2016 winners will emerge.
The awards, now in their 13th year, are continuing to generate public recognition for the winners and shortlistees and have been instrumental in helping many to secure funding and support from key stakeholders. Award winners have also enjoyed recognition both locally and further afield as the awards increasingly gain an international profile.
The entry process has been made simple by a special brochure, which gives helpful tips and advice on what to include as well as all the relevant criteria, and the awards are open to all cultural organisations with a project completed or brought into use in 2015.
Once the deadline has passed, entries will be whittled down to a shortlist by the esteemed panel of judges made up of seven leading lights in the sector who look for evidence of ‘project outcome, creativity, relation to the objective and cost effectiveness’.
In 2015 there was a mixture of winners from big nationals to local museums and heritage attractions. The Permanent Exhibition Award was won by the Imperial War Museum for its WWI Galleries and the winner of the best Customer Service was Kent Life Heritage Farm Park.
One of the Stand out winners last year was Historic Royal Palaces which scooped the Temporary and Touring Exhibition award for its Poppies exhibition, which is now on a successful UK tour.
We were delighted to win the Temporary or Touring Exhibition award in 2015. It was an honour for our poppies installation, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red and its surrounding programme commemorating the First World War Centenary to be recognised in this way, and a great tribute to all those who made the project such a success, including artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, the brilliant production and logistics teams at the Tower, the Yeoman Warders and, most of all, our many volunteers, who made it happen
Last year’s winner of the Project on a Limited Budget was the Black Country Living Museum for its WWI Greengrocers and Laura Wakelin, deputy chief executive of communications and marketing who picked up the award, said it was fantastic to be recognised and be able to use the accolade to promote the museum.
We were thrilled to win the Museums + Heritage, Project on a Limited Budget Award for our WW1 Greengrocers in 2015. It was, and still is, a project that lies at the heart of our core values as a living history museum at the centre of our community and it was wonderful that Museums + Heritage recognised its success. We are proudly displaying the award as a marque of quality at the entrance of the Museum and continue to use it on our marketing literature as we move into our 2016 season.
We were thrilled to win the Museums + Heritage, Project on a Limited Budget Award for our WW1 Greengrocers in 2015. It was, and still is, a project that lies at the heart of our core values as a living history museum at the centre of our community and it was wonderful that Museums + Heritage recognised its success. We are proudly displaying the award as a marque of quality at the entrance of the Museum and continue to use it on our marketing literature as we move into our 2016 season.
This year there are two new awards including a Fundraisers of The Year Award, which will reward the most impressive fundraising campaign by an individual or team. There is also a Volunteer of the Year Award (which has a separate deadline of Monday 29 February) in collaboration with the Association of Independent Museums, which brings the total categories to 12.
The full list of categories is as follows:
Permanent Exhibition sponsored by Martello Media
Temporary or Touring Exhibition
Educational Initiative
Project on a Limited Budget
Customer Service sponsored by BDRC Continental
Innovation
Marketing Campaign sponsored by Volunteer Makers
Trading & Enterprise with New Criteria
International Award
Restoration or Conservation sponsored by The Rochester Bridge Trust
Volunteers of the Year
Fundraisers of the Year
The award winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony at the historic staterooms of 8 Northumberland Avenue on 18 May 2016, where more than 300 industry professionals will converge in the heart of London to find out who has triumphed.
To enter the awards download the submission criteria and entry form from the Museums + Heritage website.
Entry information
Hall of Fame, entry information and and entry form for all categories can be found here.
Deadline for entries for these categories is Monday 1 February 2016Deadline for the Volunteer of the Year Award is 29 February 2016 and entry details can be found on the Museums + Heritage website
Winner’s ceremony is Wednesday 18 May 2016, 8 Northumberland Avenue, London
Main Image
Host Marcus Brigstocke with Abby Bird and Laura Wakelin of the Black Country Living Museum with their Project on a Limited Budget award at last year’s ceremony
