How many award-winning European museums have you visited?
The European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) is the longest running and most prestigious museum award in Europe, presented each year by the European Museum Forum under the auspices of the Council of Europe.
It was founded in 1977 by Kenneth Hudson, with the aim of recognising excellence in the European museum scene and encouraging innovative processes in a museum world.
The award goes to a museum which contributes most directly to attracting audiences and satisfying its visitors with unique atmosphere, imaginative interpretation and presentation, a creative approach to education and social responsibility.
EMYA is awarded to established museums that have undergone modernization or expansion during the past two years, and to new museums opened to the public in the previous two years.
Past winners have been both large and small museums, public and private ones, and whatever their subject or their nationality: they all showed outstanding public quality and changed the standard of quality in museums within Europe.
Other awards are simultaneously presented by the European Museum Forum:
The Council of Europe Museum Prize is a unique award intended to highlight the need to preserve and promote the European cultural heritage as a factor uniting the Council of Europe’s 47 member states.
The Kenneth Hudson Award goes to a museum, person, project or a group of people who have demonstrated the most unusual, daring and, perhaps, controversial achievement that challenges common perceptions of the role of museum in the society and carries forward the spirit of Kenneth Hudson.
The Silletto Prize goes to a museum which has in the past two years demonstrated excellence in involving its local community in planning and developing museum and heritage projects or has attracted outstanding support from its work with volunteers with the goal to enhance the public quality of the museum.
A number of special awards are also given to museums that have developed a new and innovative aspect of their public service and from which other European museums can learn.
How many of the EMYA winners have you visited?
- 1977: Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Ironbridge, United Kingdom
- 1978: Museum Rheydt Castle, Mönchengladbach, Germany
- 1979: Museum of the Camargue, Arles, France
- 1980: Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Netherlands
- 1981: Peloponnese Folklore Foundation Museum, Nafplion, Greece
- 1982: Museum of Art and History Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France
- 1983: Museum Sarganserland, Sargans, Switzerland
- 1984: Zuiderzeemuseum, Enkhuizen, Netherlands
- 1987: Beamish Museum, Stanley, United Kingdom
- 1988: Brandts, Odense, Denmark
- 1989: Sundsvalls Museum, Sundsvall, Sweden
- 1990: Museum of textile and social life, Fourmies, France
- 1991: The Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
- 1992: TECHNOSEUM, Mannheim, Germany
- 1993: World Heritage Rock Art Centre - Alta Museum, Alta, Norway
- 1994: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- 1995: The Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 1996: Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest, Romania
- 1997: Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey
- 1998: National Conservation Centre, Liverpool, United Kingdom (public displays now closed)
- 1999: The French Museum of the Playing Card, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
- 2000: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
- 2001: National Railway Museum York, York, United Kingdom
- 2002: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland
- 2003: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
- 2004: MARQ. Archaeological Museum of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
- 2005: Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem, Netherlands
- 2006: CosmoCaixa Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- 2007: German Emigration Center, Bremerhaven, Germany
- 2008: Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
- 2009: Salzburg Museum - Neue Residenz, Salzburg, Austria
- 2010: OZEANEUM Stralsund, Stralsund, Germany
- 2011: Gallo-Roman Museum, Tongeren, Belgium
- 2012: Archaeological Ensemble of Madinat al-Zahra, Cordoba, Spain
- 2013: Riverside Museum: Scotland's Museum of Transport & Travel, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- 2014: The Museum of Innocence, Istanbul, Turkey
See European Museum Forum for more information.
