Celebrating excellence in museums
Presentation of the Silletto Award 2013 to MAS at EMYA Tongeren, Belgium
Our Award
The Silletto Trust awards a prize annually through the European Museum of the Year Award.
The Silletto Prize for Community Participation and Engagement is sponsored by the Silletto Trust and celebrates a deep, continuous and empowering involvement between a museum and its stakeholders, that places the museum as a point of orientation and reference at the centre of its communities, whether these be local, national or global.
As the quest for democratic involvement and cultural participation increases in society at large, the obligations grow correspondingly for museums to meet the growing needs and expectations of their communities for direct involvement in all aspects of the museum’s planning, development, management and execution of everyday activities and special projects.
“our winners are very diverse but all show total commitment to their locality”
— carol jackson, trustee
Recent winners include a museum dedicated to restoring the rich and historical heritage of Vukovar after suffering in the Balkan conflict, another which relies on volunteer staff to maintain and conserve the prowess of a former engineering factory and yet another is an energetic puppet museum. All have impressed the EMYA judges.
Museums enter the process for nomination through the European Museum of the Year Award and judging is made as part of that competition. Winners of the Silletto Prize are eligible to present at the international Best in Heritage Conference in Dubrovnik.