Cornwall Heritage Awards 2022: Producing the Awards Part 1

My name is Eilish Calnan, and I have recently joined the team at Cornwall Museums Partnership as the Heritage Awards Coordinator. I have just graduated from the University of Exeter studying History in Penryn, with an emphasis on Celtic History and museums. I did work experience at the Penryn Archives, as well as the Citizen Curator Programme at Wheal Martyn, and I am the Young Trustee for the Museum of Cornish Life. I will be writing a series of blog posts in the lead up to the Heritage Awards and here is the introduction to the awards:  

After so much time apart, we are excited to announce the Cornwall Heritage Awards 2022! The awards celebrate and showcase the Cornish heritage community and will be taking place on the 9th of February at Royal Cornwall Showground in Wadebridge. There are 9 categories this year: Innovation, Collaboration, Wellbeing, Healthy Team, Opportunity, Heritage Heroes, Leader of the Year, One to Watch, and the all-important Object of the Year. Any heritage organisation can nominate themselves, as long as they are usually open to the public, even if just for one day a week. We want to celebrate the big and the small and recognise that all achievements are great, no matter their size.

Organisations can nominate multiple projects and can nominate the same project for multiple awards; details for how to complete a nomination can be found here: Cornwall Heritage Awards 2022 – Cornwall Museums Partnership.

The core values of the awards are inclusion and sustainability, as we recognise the role and responsibility heritage organisations have in making our society more equitable. Heritage organisations are here to stay and must play an important part in ensuring our planet and people are protected. As we endeavour to make the awards as inclusive and sustainable as possible, we will be documenting our efforts in a series of blog posts to ensure transparency and accountability.

This year, the Object of the Year focusses on the theme of Untold Stories. This is a chance for heritage organisations to take another look at their collection and celebrate an item which tells an untold story or retells a story from a different perspective. This is an opportunity to highlight marginalised voices, and we feel it is important to showcase these voices as we work towards becoming a more inclusive society. Object of the Year is the only category to be decided by public vote, and the voting will take place between the 6th of December and the 10th of January.

The awards offer heritage organisations a chance to celebrate as a community, network with other organisations and our sponsors, and say thank you to the people who keep Cornwall’s unique heritage alive. So, organisations: nominate yourself and let’s come together and celebrate the wonderful heritage Cornwall has to offer!