The European Museum Forum (EMF) has awarded the Glasgow’s Riverside Museum: Scotland’s Museum of Transport and Travel, with the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) 2013.
The EMF Annual Assembly and the Awards Ceremony was hosted by the Gallo Romeins Museum in Tongeren in Belgium, EMYA Winner in 2011.
Forty museums applied for the European Museum of the Year Award 2013 from 21 countries and 29 were nominated by the EMYA Judging Panel for the award.
The Riverside Museum was chosen because it “demonstrates brilliantly how a specialist transport collection can renew its relevance through active engagement with wider social and universal issues”.
The EMYA 2013 Judging Panel agreed unanimously that the museum fulfils the EMYA criteria of 'public quality' at the highest level.
Museums are assessed on their public quality, defined by EMF's founder Kenneth Hudson as "the extent to which a museum satisfies the needs and wishes of its visitors." The EMYA Judging Panel travelled throughout the continent to visit the candidates - from Azerbaijan to Portugal, and the Lofoten Islands in Norway to Turkey.
Other awards include The Kenneth Hudson Award, which was given to Batalha’s Municipal Community Museum, Damão e Diu – Batalha, Portugal, while the Silletto Award was received by MAS Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp, Belgium.
