Press Release: Cornwall Heritage Awards 2023
Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP) held the fifth Cornwall Heritage Awards on Wednesday 8 February 2023 at Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro to celebrate heritage organisations across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and recognise the fantastic work done by their volunteers and staff.
There are more than 70 heritage sites in Cornwall, including museums and archives, all offering something unique and special for their communities. CMP has produced the Cornwall Heritage Awards in partnership with SW Museum Development annually since 2018 with the aim to celebrate the work heritage organisations do for our collections and communities, and to share their achievements.
Museums across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly came together for an afternoon and evening of celebration, with 13 museums celebrating success, at the Cornwall Heritage Awards.
Hosted by BBC Radio Cornwall’s Daphne Skinnard, with introductions from Tamzyn Smith, CEO of CMP, this year’s Awards included an afternoon Symposium before the Awards ceremony where 120 attendees had the opportunity to meet colleagues from other organisations, explore and seek advice with other attendees and sector leaders.
The Symposium also featured panels and presentations from shortlisted organisations and included top tips for collaboration, examples of innovation taking place in Cornish Museums and insight into how museum activities are supporting wellbeing.
This year CMP received an impressive number of entries with 41 projects, people, and teams nominated from across 20 different organisations large and small. All organisations who submitted a nomination were invited to join CMP at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. The Awards were livestreamed via the CMP YouTube channel where 123 attendees watched from the comfort of their homes, as well as across the Chaos Digital channels who supported the Awards with AV and live-streaming services. The recording of the livestream can be found here: YouTube Live-stream
The core values of the 2023 Awards were inclusion and sustainability. Heritage organisations have a role and responsibility in making our society more equitable and inclusive. Sustainability – both operationally and environmentally – was a focus of celebration, showing how museums and heritage organisations are here for the long-term and must be at the heart of caring for our planet and communities.
2023 Cornwall Heritage Awards Winners
Organisations nominated their own activities, colleagues, and objects for consideration. Work nominated must have been undertaken since 1st January 2022. This year there were 13 award categories.
The theme of this year’s Object of the Year was Climate Stories. It was a chance for heritage organisations to draw public attention to objects in our museum collections that tell stories of human interaction with our planet over generations.
The Object of the Year is decided by public vote. This year we had seven fascinating objects, each of which tells a climate story.
The Object of the Year is the only category to be decided by public vote, which took place between Monday 5 December and Monday 9 January.
Innovation (Larger Organisation) – sponsored by the University of Exeter’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cornwall, and the Institute of Cornish Studies:
Winner: PK Porthcurno: Schools’ Tour ‘A Message to PK Porthcurno’
Highly commended: Museum of Cornish Life: Little Sparks – Library and Museum Collaboration
Highly commended: The Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: The Gurney Inventors Competition
Innovation (Smaller Organisation) – sponsored by the University of Exeter’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cornwall, and the Institute of Cornish Studies:
Winner: Isles of Scilly Museum: Young Curator Film
Highly Commended: Queer Kernow: Queering the Archive
Highly Commended: SE Cornwall Museums Forum: Post-Covid Revival of Grand Family History Day
Innovation (Larger Organisation):
Winner: Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange: Repurposing the Engine Room at The Exchange
Highly Commended: Falmouth Art Gallery: Imagine Falmouth 2022
Highly Commended: National Maritime Museum Cornwall: Small Boat, Big Story!
Innovation (Smaller Organisation):
Winner: Mevagissey and District Museum: All at Sea for the Jubilee
Highly Commended: Predannack Anti-Aircraft Battery and Museum: Local Funding Support
Wellbeing (Larger Organisation):
Winner: Royal Cornwall Museum: Threads of Survival: Cornwall Covid Quilt
Highly Commended: Falmouth Art Gallery: Splanna! Falmouth’s Young Climate Activist Collaboration
Highly Commended: Leach Pottery: People and Pottery
Wellbeing (Smaller Organisation):
Winner: King Edward Mine Museum: Volunteers Outdoor Work
Highly Commended: Wadebridge Memory Café: Mixing Memories
Healthy Team:
Winner: National Trust West Cornwall: Championing Wellbeing in West Cornwall
Highly Commended: Museum of Cornish Life: Visiting The Box
Heritage Heroes:
Winner: Predannack Anti-Aircraft Battery and Museum: Predannack Dads’ Army
Highly Commended: Falmouth Art Gallery: Falmouth Art Gallery Team
Highly Commended: Museum of Cornish Life: The Front House Team
One To Watch:
Winner: Joe Kinsman, Royal Cornwall Museum
Highly Commended: Jake Colton, Lawrence House Museum
Highly Commended: Ned Petre, Predannack Ant-Aircraft Battery and Museum
Leader of the Year:
Winner: Roger Radcliffe, St Agnes Museum Trust
Highly Commended: Cathy Woolcock, Cornwall Heritage Trust
Highly Commended: Dr Tehmina Goskar, Museum of Cornish Life
Object of the Year:
Winner: Saltash Heritage: Grace Darling – A Wooden Cradle
Highly Commended: Museum of Cornish Life: Gannet
Highly Commended: Mevagissey and District Museum: Mevagissey Gobies
Highly Commended: Predannack Anti-Aircraft Battery and Museum: Lucas Freelite Vintage Wind Generator
Highly Commended: National Maritime Museum Cornwall: Kiribati Outrigger
Highly Commended: PK Porthcurno: Green Turtle Hatchling
Highly Commended: The Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: Message in a Bottle
Spirit of the Awards (Larger Organisation) – overall commitment to inclusion and sustainability, sponsored by Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site:
Winner: The Castle Heritage Centre, Bude
Highly Commended: Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange
Highly Commended: National Maritime Museum Cornwall
Spirit of the Awards (Smaller Organisation) – overall commitment to inclusion and sustainability, sponsored by Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site:
Winner: St Agnes Museum Trust
Highly Commended: Mevagissey and District Museum
Highly Commended: Wadebridge Memory Café
CMP would like to thank all the organisations who submitted entries to the Awards and everyone who continuously works hard to look after Cornwall’s heritage, allowing us all to enjoy it.
The Cornwall Heritage Awards have been developed to commend museums and heritage organisations’ achievements, celebrate what makes them so special, and brings together the very best projects, collaborations, initiatives, and teams from organisations all over Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
The Awards have been organised by Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP) in collaboration with South West Museum Development and were made possible by the generous support of Rodda’s, Cornwall and West Devon Mining World Heritage Site, and the University of Exeter, Institute of Cornish Studies.Hashtag: #CHA23
-ENDS-
Notes to Editor
About CMP:
Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP) is an independent charitable incorporated organisation, formed in 2015 to provide leadership for Cornwall’s museums; to support them, represent them and give them a voice. We are a sector-leading charity which is not afraid to think differently. Our values of collaboration, innovation, inclusion, and integrity inform everything we do.
Our ambition is to be recognised nationally and internationally as a pioneering model of collaborative leadership which promotes innovation and resilience in the museums’ sector and beyond. We want to shift the dial in terms of the impact and value museums create. By working in partnership with museums, we want to help them to use their collections effectively to foster happy, healthy, and prosperous communities where heritage is valued and celebrated.
CMP, Studio 101, Krowji, Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 3GE
www.cornwallmuseumspartnership.org.uk