There has been a record response to the call for entries for this year’s Suffolk Museum Awards, with 49 nominations across all award categories, representing 22 of the county’s 35 Accredited museums.
The awards are organised by the Association for Suffolk Museums to celebrate and champion the county’s incredible museums and the hard work and dedication of their staff and volunteers.
Entries came from museums across Suffolk of all types and sizes, from large and local-authority museums to small, volunteer-run organisations.
The museums will find out which of them will be crowned Suffolk Museum of the Year in a ceremony in Ipswich on Wednesday 30 October, hosted by BBC Radio Suffolk’s Georgy Jamieson. Winners will be announced in six categories:
- Large Museum of the Year
- Small Museum of the Year
- Family Friendly Award
- Innovation Award
- Schools Session Award
- Volunteer(s) of the Year.
The applications were judged by a panel with a range of museum expertise, who also visited the contenders for the two Museum of the Year awards.
In addition, the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket will be presented with the Suffolk Museum Object of the Year award as voted for by the public in an online vote in August. The museum’s tin of Chocolate Worm Cakes won, receiving 41% of the 722 votes from the public. It will be presented by Andrew Papworth, the East Anglian Daily Times’ Head of News.
The museums that were nominated for the awards are:
- Bawdsey Radar Trust
- Beccles Museum
- Dunwich Museum
- Felixstowe Museum
- Great War Huts
- Halesworth & District Museum
- Ipswich Museum
- Laxfield Museum
- Lettering Arts Trust
- Long Shop Museum
- Lowestoft Maritime Museum
- Lowestoft Museum
- Moyse’s Hall
- Museum of East Anglian Life
- Parham Airfield
- The Red House
- Royal Naval Patrol Service Museum
- Southwold Museum
- West Stow Anglo Saxon Village and Country Park
- Woodbridge Tide Mill Museum.
Jayne Austin, Suffolk Museum Development and Partnership Manager, said: “The record number of entries to the awards and high standard of entries are testament to the range of interesting and innovative work that our county’s museums are doing. We’re looking forward to celebrating the achievements of all the nominated museums at the ceremony.”