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1. David Lowenthal - Professor Emeritus and Honorary Research Fellow, University College London - Museum Dilemmas: Why the Best Are So Beset

Today’s museums are more numerous and more popular than ever before. They have become emblematic of national, ethnic, and tribal identities; they are prime storehouses and showcases of essential heritages; they are looked to as ambassadors of international and multicultural goodwill; they have gained unsurpassed repute as the most trustworthy purveyors of history and memory. Yet at the same time museums are increasingly besieged by every kind of pressure...

2. Netherlands Open Air Museum (Arnhem, Netherlands) - 2005 European Museum of the Year (EMF)

The Netherlands Open Air Museum in Arnhem was founded in 1912. Strongly inspired by the preceding foundation of similar museums in Scandinavia, the Netherlands Open Air Museum was both traditional and modern. Traditional in its focus on folklore and rural life - and modern (at the time!) in its modes of presentation...

3. Big Pit, National Mining Museum of Wales (Blaenafon, UK) - Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year 2005

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales currently operates seven museums throughout Wales, which together attract 1.4 million visits a year. One of the subject areas that the Museum covers is industrial history, and for the past ten years it has been pursuing a Ł50 million strategy for interpreting Welsh industry...

4. Museum of Byzantine Culture (Thessaloniki, Greece) - 2005 Council of Europe Award (EMF)

The purpose of the Museum of Byzantine Culture is to present the rich diversity of byzantine culture casting light on as many aspects as possible, from the organisation of communal and religious life, contact with other cultures, art and intellectual development, production and trade relations, ways of thinking and preferences, to the influence which political events and historical realities had on people’s daily lives. In short, we tried to disprove stereotypes which narrowly associate Byzantium with religiousness...

5. The National Library of the Czech Republic (Prague, Czech Republic) - 2005 UNESCO Memory of the World Jikji Prize

The history of the library is connected with the foundation of the Prague University in 1348. The first written references concerning books are documented in relation to the oldest Charles College, having been given a royal gift of manuscripts in 1366. The main mission of the National Library is twofold: to be the archive library for documents issued on the territory of the Czech lands and to be a public research library especially in the domain of humanities, pure natural sciences, culture, and arts...

6. Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL (London, UK) - 2005 Classic Award (Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence)

Most awards - at least in the UK heritage sector - come in recognition of physical transformations; of dramatic new buildings, or outstanding exhibitions, and they come when the transformation is complete. On these criteria we would win no awards at all; the Petrie Museum - like so many university museums - looks much as it did in the 1950s. This hidden museum holds one of the world’s largest collections of artefacts from Egypt, ranging over 7000 years from prehistory through Pharaonic to Islamic times. It includes spectacular ornamental pieces along with everyday functional items not found in other collections...

7. Trřndelag Folkemuseum, Sverresborg (Trondheim, Norway) - Norwegian Museum of the Year 2005

Sverresborg is a folk museum presenting cultural history and building traditions from Trřndelag, in the middle of Norway. We are very happy to see that the distinction “Museum of the year 2005” was given to us as an institution, and not for a single project. In the jury’s comment it is written: „Strong focus towards children and youths, innovative co-operational work with other museums and a long lasting and enduring focus on quality, are the jury’s basis for this award.“ For many years children have been our main focus, both as a target group and in the history we convey...

8. Casa Batlló - A. Gaudí (Barcelona, Spain) - 2004 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Medal for Architectural Heritage

This landmark building in Barcelona city centre known today as Casa Batlló was refurbished by the brilliant Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí between 1904 and 1906, on a commission from the textile manufacturer Josep Batlló i Casanovas. Gaudí reached the height of his powers in a crucial period in the history of modern art, which is when Art Nouveau was flourishing, especially in Catalonia, where it was called Modernisme and was an expression of Catalan identity. It impregnated literature and music, painting, sculpture, the decorative arts and most of all architecture...

9. Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land - Museum und Park Kalkriese (Kalkriese, Germany) - 2004 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Prize for Archaeological Sites

In 2004 the ‘Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land - Museum und Park Kalkriese’ received the main prize in the category archaeological sites in the competition for the ‘European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage’ launched by Europa Nostra and the European Community. The prize was awarded for the “innovative interpretation of an ancient battlefi eld - which commemorates a decisive event in European history – and for the deciphering and presentation of the scant remains by interdisciplinary scientific research”.

10. The Heathland Centre (Lygra, Norway) - 2004 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Prize for Cultural Landscapes

For 5000 years, heathlands have been Europe’s cultural landscape along the Atlantic coastline - from northwest Portugal in the south to the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. These heathlands are the result of unique ecological interactions between human beings, the coastal climate, plants, and domestic animals. Modern agriculture has led to the loss of more than 80% of this open landscape. Thera are small areas of heathland still being worked by farmers according to age-old traditions.While older coastal farmers in Norway are still familiar with the traditional methods of managing these heathlands, very few young farmers have this knowledge, and this traditional way of life will soon die out completely...

11. Bauska Castle Museum (Bauska, Latvia) - 2004 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Diploma for Architectural Heritage

Bauska fortress-ruin is a monument of architecture and archaeology of national signifi cance. Bauska fortress was built in the middle of the 15th century under the rule of the Livonian Order. In 1706, during the Great Northern war, the fortification systems of the castle were blown up. After the war the building has lost its functional signifi cance; it has not been repaired and has gradually turned into romantic ruin. Before conservation Bauska fortress-ruin was in a condition of breakdown, which was rapidly progressing, and the existence of authentic evidence of 15-16th century building history was threatened...

12. Värmlands Museum (Karlstad, Sweden) - Swedish Museum of the Year 2005

Värmland is a landscape known for its literature with authors such as Selma Lagerlöf, and natural heritage with great forests, the third largest lake in Europe, Vänern and the river Klarälven wich begins in Norway and cuts straight through the county from north to the south. This landscape, with water, big forests and hills/mountains is also known for its melancholy and distant blue mountains. This has inspired Swedish artist to do paintings where the landscape is the focal point. It is in this cultural landscape that the county museum of Värmland exists and works...

13. The M. A. Sholokhov State Museum-Reserve (Veshenskaya, Russia) - 2005 Grand-Prix at the national contest INTERMUSEUM - 2005 International M.A. Sholokhov Prize - 2005 Special National and Presidential Awards

The Sholokhov State Museum-Reserve is located in the south of Russia and occupies a vast territory of the picturesque Upper Don land in the Rostov Region. Far from cities and transport highways it manages to be one of the most popular and rapidly developing museums in Russia. The Museum was established in 1984 to commemorate M. A. Sholokhov (1905-1984), the Nobel Prize winner and the greatest Russian author of the 20th century. The main idea of the Sholokhov State Museum-Reserve follows creating an open-air museum-novel involving the Quiet Don, both the great river and the masterpiece of M. Sholokhov’s genius, as well as the Cossack villages, traditions, lifestyle to serve as expositions and exhibits and to provide the quality of response to visitors...

14. Locomotion: the National Railway Museum at Shildon (Shildon / York, UK) - 2005 Permanent Exhibition (Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence) - 2005 Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits (Society for the History of Technology Worldwide)

The National Railway Museum (NRM) is the largest Railway Museum in the world and the busiest museum in England outside of London. Founded in 1975, it has in excess of three quarter of a million visitors a year. With over 3 million objects in its collection including over 300 locomotives and coaches, space has been an increasing problem. Objects stored in the open or in inadequate storage were deteriorating at an unacceptable rate and additional premises were needed. With limited development options available at York, NRM decided to use its problem as an opportunity to maximise its brand and enter into an unique partnership which resulted in the creation of Locomotion: the National Railway Museum @ Shildon...

15. Technical Museum (Brno, Czech Republic) - National Gloria Musealis Award 2003

The Museum was located in the former convent of the Ursuline Order in the historical centre of the city of Brno, together with most of its exhibitions. A fundamental change for the existence of the Technical Museum came with the enactment of the Church Property Restitution Act whereby the Museum had to give up its main facility with exhibitions, library with 40 thousand volumes, workshops, laboratories, experimental foundry, and these had to be moved to other facilities in five different locations...

16. No 1 Pump Station (Mundaring Weir, Western Australia) - 2005 The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (WA) Conservation Award - 2005 Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits - Honorable Mention (Society for the History of Technology Worldwide)

One hundred and three years ago, 20 steam powered pumping engines, located in 8 pump stations, began pumping water 560 km uphill from the mountain range east of Perth, Western Australia to the arid goldfi elds of Kalgoorlie. It was an engineering feat unparalleled in Australian history. It was, and as far as we are aware remains, the longest freshwater pipeline in the world. The Golden Pipeline is one of the largest heritage sites in the world. It stretches over 560 km and incorporates artefacts as diverse a pump stations, remnant timber pipes lying in the desert sand, abandoned workers communities and the collective memories of a project to which almost every Western Australian in connected...

17. Stichting Monumentenzorg Curaçao (Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles) - 2005 Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Monumenten Prize

Stichting Monumentenzorg Curaçao’s history has been marked by a preservation practice ranging from the mere rescue of monuments in the early days of its existence to professional conservation management nowadays. The rescue of country estate Brievengat in 1954 provoked the establishment of Stichting Monumentenzorg Curaçao. Severely damaged and in a bad state of repair, the property was acquired by the Foundation and restored successively. In the years that followed the Foundation embarked on quite a number of rescue operations...

18. Museum of Nature of Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude, Russia) - 2005 Open Museum Forum Award by Open Museum Association Russia

Festival “Lake people” offers the cultural action as the instrument of ecological and social problems investigation of “lake people”, representing a rich cultural humanitarian heritage of people occupying coast of Baikal. Lake people has developed the original strongly pronounced identity, which is connected with an environment. Their cultural and spiritual traditions reflect variety and complexity of natural environment. The festival representing ethnography and the modern art promotes will help to revive old traditions and acquire new ones. It expresses a mission of museums as creators of culture and helps to solve problems of harmonization in the system “person – society nature”...

19. Caesarea harbour tourism development - Caesarea development corp. ltd. (Israel) & Continuum Group (York, UK) - 2005 Excellence Overseas (Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence)

The Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Development Corp. Ltd. is the development and marketing agency of the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation, a joint private-government company whose earnings are dedicated to the development of higher education in Israel. The company also holds the title to the lands of the Caesarea National Park, one of the most popular historic sites in Israel. The Continuum Group is the UK’s leading designer and developer of cultural heritage attractions and was charged with the design development of Caesarea working through the Tel Aviv-based project management company ATAT which managed the construction and delivery of the project...

20. Landesmuseum Joanneum / Kunsthaus Graz (Graz, Austria) - 2004 RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Award - Arts and Leisure winner

„Up into the unknown” is noted on one of the first sketches of the London architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier for the Kunsthaus Graz. And until today it describes the first impression visitors experience when they ascend into the large blue bubble that contains the major exhibition spaces of the Kunsthaus Graz. The Kunsthaus Graz, which was opened to the public in September 2003, is a unique part of the Landesmuseum Joanneum. The Kunsthaus Graz is one of the largest computergenerated “blobs” built so far and one of the technically most demanding, as it has to achieve the requirements necessary to run a high-quality exhibition space while keeping the follow-up costs within reason...

21. “Museums & Architecture” Session - Pekka Vapaavuori - KUMU The Main Building of the Art Museum of Estonia

The project is based on the winning proposal of an international architectural competition held in 1994. Further designwork began immediately after the competition, and revised preliminary designs were submitted to the museum in January 1995. The construction work was completed at the end of 2005 and the museum was opened to the public on 18 February 2006. The impressive site with a 20-metre-high lime stone slope is located at the south end of the Kadriorg Park, some 3 km from Tallinn city centre...

22. “Presentation of Art Projects” - The James Putnam Organization - Interventions in the Sigmund Freud’s Study, The Freud Museum, London

This presentation will focus on three artist projects at the Freud Museum, London and aims to demonstrate the advantages of introducing contemporary art to a historical museum. The Freud Museum is situated in North London and is the house that Freud lived in the last years of his life while exiled from Vienna by the Nazis. It contains the famous analytic couch on which patients would recline comfortably while Freud, out of sight, listened to their ‘free association’...