2012 European Museum of the Year Award winners

The European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) was founded in 1977 under the auspices of the Council of Europe, with the aim of recognising excellence in the European museum scene and encouraging innovative processes in a museum world which still took the more traditional view to focus exclusively on collections rather than on their use for the benefit of society.

Winners of the European Museum of the Year Awards 2012

The EMYA Judging Panel was delighted to announce the Museo de Madinat al-Zahra in Cordoba in Spain as the European Museum of the Year 2012 for its outstanding achievements for public quality and excellence. The Museum encompasses the important archaeological site of the 10th century capital for Muslim al-Andalus and a new museum building that serves as a research centre, visible storage, conservation and restoration facility, and as a space for exhibition and interpretation of a unique collection. The museum and the partially recovered and restored site document a magnificent, complex city, its supporting infrastructure, buildings and gardens, as well as the social organisation and everyday life of its 10,000 inhabitants. The Madinat al-Zahra Museum functions as a visual memory of the mixed and plural past of Andalusia, and thereby as a potential bridge between different cultures also in contemporary Europe. In every aspect of its work this museum displays a high level of excellence. See images of Museo de Madinat al-Zahra.

Other Awards

The Council of Europe Museum Prize goes to Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum – Kulturen der Welt (Cultures of the World), Cologne, Germany. The Silletto Prize for the work with local community and involvement of volunteers went to TOPIC: The International Puppet Museum Centre, Tolosa, Spain. The Kenneth Hudson Award for the most unusual, daring and, sometimes, controversial achievement that challenges common perceptions of the role of museums in society went to the Glasnevin Museum in Dublin, Ireland.