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Cornwall Museums Partnership

Cornwall Heritage Awards 2022

There are more than 70 heritage sites in Cornwall: museums, art galleries, castles, mines, historic properties and industrial heritage sites. Many more collections are held in community archives. They offer something unique and special for their communities.

With our partners at SW Museum Development, we recognise the excellence within these museums and believe there is a lot we can learn from each other. We want to celebrate the work museums do and share their achievements.

Cornwall Heritage Awards will raise the profile of your museum with your  local community, across Cornwall, and with the wider heritage sector. It will showcase  your  best practice and share great ideas.

The core values of the Heritage Awards are inclusion and sustainability. We will recognise and celebrate the role and responsibility of museums and heritage organisations in making our society more equitable and inclusive. We will also celebrate sustainability – both operationally and environmentally – acknowledging that museums and heritage organisations are here for the long-term and must be at the heart of caring for our planet and people.

 

Award Programme: Cornwall Heritage Awards 2022 Programme

Accessible Award Programme: Cornwall Heritage Awards 2022 Programme text only

 

2022 Award Categories

Innovation – a new initiative, digital project or way of working that has made your organisation more resilient in the long term.

Collaboration – a new or existing partnership that has delivered results greater than the sum of its parts.

Wellbeing – activities that have improved the wellbeing of your community.

Healthy Team – for organisations who look after their workforce of staff and/or volunteers.

Opportunity – a piece of work that has made the most of an unexpected opportunity, especially arising from the pandemic.

Heritage Heroes – an opportunity to celebrate the work of a team of volunteers who have achieved something special this year.

Leader of the Year – recognising inspirational leadership from anyone in an organisation at any level who has influenced, inspired and motivated their colleagues.

One to Watch – say thank you to a young volunteer aged under 25 for their outstanding contribution to your organisation.

Object of the Year: Untold Stories – celebrate and shout about an object that tells a previously untold story or retells a story from a different perspective. This category will be decided through an online public vote. It is an opportunity to raise profile and reach wide public attention.

Spirit of the Awards – this will be awarded to the excellent project or organisation that the judges feel encapsulates the spirit of the Cornwall Heritage Awards and most merits additional commendation not just for their entries, but also for their positive actions towards the core values of inclusion and sustainability. The winner will be selected from all shortlisted applications.

Organisations nominate their own activities, colleagues and objects for consideration. Work nominated must have been undertaken since 1st January 2020.

 

Award Ceremony

Royal Cornwall Showground Pavilion Centre, near Wadebridge – 9th February 2022

 

How will it work?

Museums and heritage organisations will be able to nominate their work for one or more categories using the appropriate application form. Organisations can submit more than one application for each award or nominate the same project for different categories. You will be asked to choose a category and then specify if you wish the piece of work to be considered for other categories. The judges may move your piece of work into a different category if they feel it is more appropriate.

The closing date for applications is 5 pm on Thursday 25th November. There will be no extension.

The assessment process will take into consideration the scale of your organisation and the impact your project has made. Please make sure relevant details are included in your application so assessors can make informed decisions.

Each category will be shortlisted by a panel. A maximum of 3 applications will be shortlisted for each award. All applicants will be informed of the outcome of the shortlisting process by Friday 3rd December.

If your project is shortlisted, you will need to provide good quality photographs to support your application and for use in the ceremony. There is an opportunity to attach images within the application form. Judging will be undertaken during December and January by a panel of independent experts. A public vote for Object of the Year will take place from Monday 6th December to Monday 10th January. The final results will be announced at the Heritage Awards ceremony on Wednesday 9th February.

 

Why should your organisation take part?

This is a great opportunity for you to shout about your achievements, large or small, and share something you are proud of with the world. Museums and heritage organisations in Cornwall are doing great things, and this is the perfect opportunity to celebrate those achievements as a community.

Heritage Awards is designed to recognise and reward achievement, inspire pride, raise the profile of your organisation and of all museums and heritage organisations in Cornwall. Every organisation will have the potential to benefit from the publicity created in print, online and on BBC Radio Cornwall.

Each shortlisted application will be profiled at the awards ceremony and best practice case studies will be produced for the CMP website. The ceremony allows a great opportunity to network with other heritage organisations, potential partners and funders, and reconnect with our museum community in person.

Awards and achievements help to inspire a sense of trustworthiness, pride and credibility. Entering the awards is a great way of offering recognition to your team. Winners of each category will receive a trophy and shortlisted museums will receive a certificate of commendation.

 

Eligibility

To take part in the Heritage Awards your organisation must be a heritage site, museum or archive with a heritage collection, even a small one, that is accessible to the public.

Cornwall Museums Partnership is committed to inclusion and equity among staff, volunteers, audiences and visitors. At their best, we think museums enable greater understanding and empathy by providing a view of the world through other people’s eyes. They can be a focal point for communities, bringing people together, promoting wellbeing and tackling loneliness. To be eligible for a Heritage Award, you will need to demonstrate your organisation’s commitment to equity and the measures you take to tackle exclusion.

We will also ask about environmental sustainability in your organisation as part of every application. All positive actions, however small, will be considered while judging the awards. Every entrant will be invited to an exclusive event following the awards to share examples of good practice, inspiring ideas and solutions to barriers.

For our part, we are committed to making the Cornwall Heritage Awards as inclusive and sustainable as possible. We plan to share our Heritage Awards journey in a series of blog posts, to highlight and explain our decisions.

To ensure we celebrate success across the full scale and breadth of heritage organisations, the size and context of the organisation will be taken into account. We will ask you to confirm how many full-time equivalent staff (if any) the organisation employs, how many people volunteer, if you are managed/supported by a larger structure, what your usual seasonal opening times are and how many visitors you have. This context will help our judging panel better understand your organisation to ensure equity and inclusion across the awards.

If you are uncertain which category your project fits into, please get in touch.

 

How to apply

Please read the full guidance and questions for each category before you apply here: Heritage Awards 2022 Application Guidance

There are 3 formats of application form dependent on the category. Please click on the links below to access the forms:

Application Form for Categories 1-5: Innovation, Collaboration, Wellbeing, Healthy Team and Opportunity

Application Form for Categories 6-8: Heritage Heroes, Leader of the Year and One to Watch

Application Form for Category 9: Object of the Year

 

Contact

Stephanie Clemens (Museum Development Officer) and Eilish Calnan (Heritage Awards Coordinator) on HeritageAwards@cornwallmuseumspartnership.org.uk.

You will receive notification as receipt of application within 3 days – please contact us as soon as possible if you do not receive confirmation.

Prior to short-listing all applications will be kept in confidence and no details will be shared.

 

We hope you feel inspired – good luck!

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