Manchester (England). The Manchester Museum (attached to the University of Manchester) won the European Museum of the Year Award 2024 (Emya) for its new museography and its societal commitment. Reopened in 2023 After a major renovation, the museum has created new spaces improving accessibility and intercultural dialogue. The jury praised the overhaul of the missions of the establishment, which confronts its complex history by redefining its role in the light of its collections.
The new gallery of South Asia, designed with around thirty members of the local diaspora, illustrates this collaborative approach aimed at offering an inclusive space where each visitor can recognize themselves. The museum also assumes a social role by engaging in the restitution of certain parts of its collections to communities of origin – for example, it has returned in 2023 sacred objects to an Aboriginal community in Australia.
Created in 1977 by British, relatively little known in France, the European Museum Prize for the year is organized by the European Museum Forum (European Museum Forum, EMF) under the aegis of the Council of Europe. Each year, it rewards a recently open or modernized European museum for its museographic excellence, its creativity in reading its collections, and its educational and social commitment. The jury, made up of international independent experts appointed by the EMF, assesses the applications on file and then on the field: each pre -selected museum receives the visit of a juror, followed for the finalists of an anonymous visit, before the final deliberation.
The winning museum receives a symbolic trophy, sculptureThe Egg by Henry Moore, to be kept for a year, and benefits from recognition within the museum sector. Four French museums have won this award since its creation: the Camargue Museum in Arles (1979), the Paul-Éluard Museum of Art and History in Saint-Denis (1982), the Avesnois Ecomuseum in Fourmies and Trélon (1990) and the French Museum of the Playing Map in Issy-les-Moulineaux (1999).
