Everyone to the museum!
the cultural sector, Like many others, he faced a tough time last year that continues unabated today.
Museums have had to overcome many obstacles, among them, that of not being considered essential activities and having to remain closed for a long time.
Fortunately, right now in Spain we can visit these spaces, where all sanitary measures are respected and applied to make them safe places.
In this context in which we cannot lower our guard against the pandemic, the 44th edition of the European Museum of the Year (EMYA) awards It has been held with the participation of 48 museums from 25 countries.
The judges of the European Museum of the Year competition went out of their way to visit the candidate spaces during the late summer and early fall of 2020, before new restrictions were imposed across Europe.
During that period, they managed to evaluate 27 museums while the remaining 21 museums have been postponed to the EMYA 2022 competition. Of those visited this year, 12 have been awarded for their innovative and inspiring projects as well as for encompassing a series of key social issues and raising awareness about the importance of biodiversity and the dangers of its decline.
The winner of the main prize EMYA 2021 (European Museum of the Year 2021), has been the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, located in the Dutch city of Leiden.
Naturalis Biodiversity Center: European Museum of the Year 2021
NATURALIS: THE EUROPEAN MUSEUM OF THE YEAR 2021
Naturalis is the national center for biodiversity in the Netherlands and one of the largest natural history museums in the world, thanks to his impressive research on global issues related to climate, food supply, the environment, medicine and the preservation of biodiversity.
It is not only an organization with a long history but also with an agile capacity to transform itself. It is a very inventive museum with beautiful exhibits and a multitude of public services and events.
In addition, Naturalis invites us to reflect on how we can protect the beauty of nature, preserve its biodiversity and be informed and responsible citizens with climate change.
“It is great that our museum is recognized internationally through this award. Thank you very much! Fascination for the beauty and diversity of nature, that is the basis of Naturalis. Thanks to our museum, we can share our love and passion for nature with the public. If people embrace nature, they will also take better care of it. And that is now more necessary than ever!” said Edwin van Huis, Director General of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
'Tyrannosaurus rex', at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center
OBJECTIVE: DISCOVER THE RICHNESS OF NATURE
Naturalis is a family-oriented young museum project that it is based on an older museum with 200 years of history.
After a radical makeover that lasted ten years, everything is new at Naturalis: The collections of five institutes have been merged and digitized, attractive exhibitions have been set up, many new spaces have been added and a multitude of interesting activities have been organized for different audiences.
“Together we discover the richness of nature”: Naturalis' motto effectively combines a love of nature and connectivity, permeating the exhibition galleries, laboratories, programs, and all services provided by the museum's staff.
The eight exhibition galleries, each with their own theme and style, along with the science areas, where visitors can ask the museum's scientists any questions and observe the research and conservation carried out on the site, are based on the combination of the "Big Five" educational principles: wonder and curiosity; use of real objects, focus on real situations and participation of real researchers; relevance of nature for each visitor; focus on learning; and promotion of a conscious attitude of science in search of truth and knowledge of the world.
Exterior of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center
CONNECTION HUMAN BEINGS - NATURE
The way Naturalis has been transformed makes it a global connector of humans and nature and an ambassador for its preservation at a time when climate change affects all the world's ecosystems.
In addition, the remodeling of Naturalis includes the construction of an information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure local, regional and international for biodiversity information.
The Distributed System for Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) is a new world-class Research Infrastructure (RI) for natural science collections, which digitally unifies all European natural science assets under common conservation and access policies and practices.
Naturalis: “Together we discover the richness of nature”
THE REST OF THE WINNERS (WITH ONE SPANISH IN THE ROWS)
In addition to the main prize, European Museum of the Year 2021, The jury has awarded other prizes, which were also announced at the online ceremony held on May 6.
Thus, the Council of Europe Museums Award 2021 has been for the Gulag History Museum (Moscow). This award is given to museums that demonstrate excellence and have adopted a European perspective, reflecting the fundamental values of the Council of Europe.
The winner of 2021 Kenneth Hudson Award it is a museum that likes to continually reinvent itself and challenge its visitors to think and feel how they co-create a better world. This is CosmoCaixa (Barcelona), whose work has been recognized as exemplary on more than one occasion but his curiosity about science and his contribution to society.
The rest of the winners (and the prizes awarded) have been: the Kenan Yavuz Museum of Ethnography in Beşpınar, Turkey (Siletto Award 2021); the Gruuthusemuseum in Bruges, Brussels (Museo de Portimão Award – Most welcoming new museum in Europe in 2021); and the Walserhaus Gurin museum in Bosco Gurin, Switzerland (Meyvaert Museum Award for Sustainability 2021).
You can see the full gallery here.