Even before our first conference ICOM has recognised the potential and provided patronage. Over editions its highest representatives took part as speakers, moderators, jury members etc. The story of 20 years of Best in Heritage is a tale of this partnership and owes much to it.

It was the goal of connecting professional and civil society that brought the Best in Heritage and Europa Nostra together in a partnership that since 2008 enables the EU Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards’ laureates to be presented regularly to the conference audience both from and out of Europe. Many times these very projects were voted by the conference audience as, globally, the „Projects of influence“.

The City of Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik Museums offer invaluable local support, without which the project wouldn’t be able to function properly. Sharing with us a role of the host they also share responsibility of our participants feeling comfortable and welcome in the UNESCO Heritage site of Dubrovnik. In addition, more local support comes from Society of Dubrovnik Antiquities, Dubrovnik Tourist board and Museums and Galleries Konavle.

When starting, the conference has been entirely financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, which has remained a patron and sponsor since. We hope this cooperation continues successfully, as we are one of rare Croatian cultural export projects, thriving even in these times of uncertainty. 

Partnership with EXPONATEC Cologne, one of the biggest heritage fairs in Europe, enables our winners to be presented to an even wider audience. There, biannually, we enjoy the privilege of a lavish stand where our laureates are invited to showcase their success stories to an international audience.

Meyvaert company from Belgium is the one who helped us launch the IMAGINES programme, focused on multimedia and new technologies, in 2016. Their Director Frank Boot has been our dear guest at many editions since. Through the editions there were many more supporting organisations, just to mention few: ICCROM, ICOMOS, Chinese Museums Association, IFLA, IFFM, Novena, UNESCO Venice etc. 

As an exclusive for our newsletter readers, we hereby present the listings for this year online edition . As you can see the programme is as diverse and informative as ever, promising an inspiring video series of interviews. Our hard working interviewers and members of Jury are already at work and our in-house production has started. It will be launched in early May.

IMAGINES

MUSEWEB Best of the GLAMi Awards 2020

• Unmute Art Pietrasanta basilic – Arthemisia

MUSEWEB Exhibition or Collection Extension Award 2020 for Non-Web

• Smithsonian Open Access: Smithsonian Institution

MUSE Award 2020 for AR/VR/Mixed Reality

• Back to the City of the Sun via Augmented Reality | Cahokia Mounds Museum

MUSE Digital Campaign Award 2020

• Urban Archive | Museum of the City of New York, Urban Archive

MUSE Mobile App Award 2020

• Walking Cinema: Museum of the Hidden City Mobile App | National Endowment for the Humanities, Walking Cinema

MUSE Research & Innovation Award 2020

• The UniDescription Project: Increasing Empirical Understanding of Audio Description with People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired | University of Hawaii at Manoa

MAPDA BEST IN SHOW Award 2020 for Multimedia

• Museums Victoria | River Connections

Family Friendly Museum Award 2020 for Best Social Media Activity

• National Museum Wales | Minecraft your Museum

Best Storytelling Video and Winner of Museums in Short Award 2020

• Man creates man | Diachronic Museum, Larissa, Greece

Heritage in Motion Best Achievement Award 2020

• Digital and audiovisual solutions in Fat Margaret permanent exhibition "Towering Tales of the Sea" | Estonian Maritime Museum Foundation

Heritage in Motion App Award 2020

• Please Touch! An inclusive art experience powered by ARCHES | Moritz Neumüller

AVICOM/f@imp Gold Award 2020 for Digital Interactive

• The Palace Museum Archaeological Heritage Project

AVICOM/f@imp Silver Award 2020 for Augmented Reality

• Battle of Borodino Panorama

Heritage in Motion Games & Interactive experiences

• The Aztec Sun Stone 3D videomapping | Rik Herder

CORE PROGRAMME

European Museum Forum / Council of Europe Museum Prize 2020

• National Museum of Secret Surveillance “House of Leaves”, Tirana, Albania

Art Fund Prize for Museums of the Year 2020

• Gairloch Museum, Gairloch, United Kingdom

Museums + Heritage Award for the International Project of the Year < £1m

• Studio Louter, OPERA Amsterdam and The Mauritshuis Shifting Image | In Search of Johan Maurits, The Netherlands

Family Friendly Museum Award From Home 2020 / Going the Extra Mile

• The Whitworth, Manchester | Still Parents, United Kingdom

BankGiro Loterij Museumprijs 2020

• Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Museums Association United Kingdom Best Museums Change Lives Project 2020

• National Museums Northern Ireland in collaboration with Nerve Centre, Northern Ireland Museums Council, and Northern Ireland Screen | Reimagine, Remake, Replay, United Kingdom

ICCROM-Sharjah Grand Prix 2020

• The preservation of the Manuscripts Collection of the Great Omari Mosque Library, Gaza, Palestine

ICCROM-Sharjah Grand Prix 2020

• The Rehabilitation of Souk Al-Saqatiya, Aleppo, Syria

Chinese Museums Association Most Innovative Museums in China Award 2020

• Jinsha Site Museum, Chengdu, China

Chinese Museums Association Most Innovative Museums in China Award 2020

• Palace Museum of the Manchurian Regime, Changchun, China

Chinese Museums Association Most Innovative Museums in China Award 2020

• Jiangxi Provincial Museum, Nanchang, China

Japanese Association of Museums Award 2020

• Showa Era Life Style Museum, Kitanagoya, Japan

2020 Museums and Galleries National Awards (MAGNA) National Winner

• Tiati Wangkanthi Kumangka (Truth-Telling Together) | Bay Discovery Centre, Glenelg, Australia

Canadian Museums Association Awards 2020 Awards of Outstanding Achievement / Research in the cultural heritage sector

• Museum Activism | Robert R. Janes and Richard Sandell, Canada/United Kingdom

European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2020 - Conservation

• Hvar's Arsenal, Hvar, Croatia

Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Award 2020 / Transnational Thematic Tourism Products, Including Cultural Routes, 1st Prize

• Historic Cafés in the Iberian Peninsula | Portuguese Historic Cafés Association, Portugal/Spain

2020 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation / Award of Excellence

• Sunder Nursery, New Delhi, India

European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2020 - Research

• Tramontana Network III, France/Italy/Poland/Portugal/Spain

European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2020 - Conservation

• Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, L’Aquila, Italy

European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2020 - Education, Training and Awareness-Raising

• “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.”, Spain/Poland

ILUCIDARE Special Prizes 2020

• TYPA Print Museum, Tartu, Estonia

European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2020 - Education, Training and Awareness-Raising

• Ambulance for Monuments, ROMANIA

Museums + Heritage Award Restoration/Conservation Project

• Plymouth City Council (The Box) and Orbis Conservation | The Box Naval Figureheads Collection, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Museums + Heritage Award The International Project of the Year > £1m

• OMM - Odunpazarı Modern Museum, Odunpazarı - Eskişehir, Turkey

Museums Association United Kingdom Best Lockdown Project 2020

• Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books | Supporting Families in Byker During Lockdown, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

EdCom Award for Excellence in Programming 2020

• History Unfolded | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC, United States

EMF/ European Museum of the Year Award 2020

• TBA on May 6th

EMF / Kenneth Hudson Award 2020

• TBA on May 6th