Two Lisbon museums vying for European Museum of the Year award

Lisbon’s Design Museum (MUDE) and Lisbon Museum – Pimenta Palace are among the 34 nominees for the European Museum of the Year Award, which the organisers will host on Saturday in Bilbao, Spain.

The presentation of the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) will be the highlight of the annual conference of the European Museum Forum, which begins tomorrow, bringing together institutions from various countries to present projects and best practices in the areas of social responsibility, inclusion and community engagement, according to the European Museum Forum’s website.

This year’s edition has the theme “Revolutionising the Museum: Inclusion for All”, focusing discussions on challenging traditional exhibition and curatorial structures, removing physical, cognitive and social barriers to access to culture, promoting participatory practices and “affirming museums as spaces of welcome, inclusion and reflection on contemporary societies”.

On Thursday and Friday, the 34 nominated museums will present their projects to the international jury, ahead of a closing gala and announcement of the winners, scheduled for Saturday.

MUDE, which opened in 2009 and is dedicated to the many expressions of design, reopened on July 1, 2024 after eight years of renovation work on the former Banco Nacional Ultramarino building in Lisbon’s historic centre, where it is housed.

Created on the initiative of Lisbon City Council, the museum, which has a collection of over 18,000 items organised into 19 thematic sections and five specialist areas, reopened with refurbished exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a design library, a shop, a bookshop, educational areas and a panoramic terrace.

By the time the main building closed for renovation, it had welcomed almost 2 million visitors across 60 exhibitions and 170 events related to its collection.

The Pimenta Palace, the main site of the Lisbon Museum, the other Portuguese museum nominated, features a display that combines chronological and thematic approaches to the capital’s urban development, incorporating archaeological finds, everyday objects and architectural references.

It reopened on September 1, 2024, also following renovation works that began in 2014.

Housed in an 18th-century summer palace, surrounded by gardens, the museum presents the permanent exhibition “The House Where the City Lives”, dedicated to the evolution of Lisbon from prehistory to the 21st century.

Palácio Pimenta also runs programmes aimed at families, young people and senior citizens, with a particular focus on sustainability and the critical re-examination of historical narratives.

Quoted by the organisation on its website, president of the European Museum Forum, Amina Krvavac, emphasises that these spaces “currently face a complex and constantly changing social landscape, marked by conflicts and growing polarisation”, noting that the trust these institutions still enjoy within their communities “implies an increased responsibility”.

Among this year’s nominees are institutions such as the Seddülbahir Fortress (Turkey), the Museum of Rural Civilisation in Mendrisiotto (Switzerland), the Museum of Madness Institute (Slovenia), the La Unión Mining Museum (Spain), the Museum of Engineering and Technology in Kraków (Poland), the Tsitsanis Research Centre – Museum (Greece), the Obersalzberg Documentation Centre (Germany), the Latvian National Museum of Literature and Music (Latvia), the Malva Museum of Visual Arts (Finland) and the Budapest Museum of Ethnography (Hungary).

In 2025, the Alvor Lifeguard Interpretation Centre, in the municipality of Portimão, received the Silletto Prize, included in the list of winners, an award that recognises the work carried out with the local community.

In 2017, Leiria Museum won the same prize, and the international jury praised the museum for integrating volunteers and for the active participation of local residents in its projects.

Established in 1977, the European Museum of the Year Award distinguishes institutions that stand out for their innovation, the quality of the experience offered to the public and their contribution to the social role of museums. It is considered one of the most prestigious distinctions in the European museum sector.

Source: LUSA