2025 WINNERS

Huge congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Museums + Heritage Awards.
The winners were announced at a glittering live ceremony in London on Thursday 15 May.

SELECT Category | 2025

Innovator of the Year

The Winner

Anoxart Ltd Insect Eradication for Artworks and Heritage Collections


Shortlisted

  • Podego B.V. Personalize AI Audio Guides for Museums
  • Digital Venue Digital Venue - We empower many to see more
  • StaffSavvy Shift Deployments
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2025 Winners

Visitor Accessibility Award

The Winner

Wellcome Collection Putting accessibility at the heart of Wellcome Collection


Highly Commended

  • Chiltern Open Air Museum

Shortlisted

  • Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery Accessibility Champions
  • National Galleries of Scotland Making art work for everyone
  • Royal Collection Trust Expanding accessibility at the Palace of Holyroodhouse
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2025 Winners

Sector Impact Award

The Winner

Heritage Open Days 30 years of England’s largest festival of history and culture: a platform of consistent sector support cultivating nationwide community engagement


Shortlisted

  • University of Westminster, Royal Holloway University of London, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery The Workshop for Inclusive Co-created Audio Description (W-ICAD): Enhancing museum equity, diversity and inclusion through audio interpretation
  • Westminster Adult Education Service Cultural Heritage apprenticeships: new accessible and inclusive routes into the sector
  • Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage Unearthed: Forgotten Histories
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2025 Winners

Sponsored by

Visitor Welcome Award

The Winner

Migration Museum Welcome to the Migration Museum


Highly Commended

  • Derby Museums Trust Visitor Experience Team, Museum of Making

Shortlisted

  • Nothe Fort operated by Weymouth Civic Society Wanting to make a difference: -Visitor Experience at Nothe Fort
  • Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust The Historic Dockyard Chatham
  • Young V&A Young V&A Front of House Team
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2025 Winners

Sponsored by

Sustainable Project of the Year

Joint Winners

Railworld Wildlife Haven Entertain and Educate about our Amazing Planet we all call ’Our Home’

and

Stourbridge Glass Museum Eco-friendly Upcycled Glass Exhibition in New Eco Museum


Highly Commended

  • The Arkwright Society Water Power Project at Cromford Mills

Shortlisted

  • The Natural History Museum The Urban Nature Project
  • Good Journey Cutting carbon with car-free travel to the National Trust
  • Culture Perth and Kinross Waters Rising Exhibition at Perth Museum
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2025 Winners

Best Use of Digital – International

The Winner

Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center/East City Films The Journey Back - VR Experiences


Highly Commended

  • Mauritshuis X Jongsma ONeill LOOT - 10 stories

Shortlisted

  • Ah Amália - Living Experience Immersive biography of Amália Rodrigues and Fado
  • Kunstsilo Tivoli; an art museums first immersive multimedia production on a work in their collection.
  • Musea Brugge Closer to Memling: New Visitor Experiences through Innovative Technologies
  • Museums Victoria, Melbourne Museum Antopia: Explore a World of Secret Senses
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2025 Winners

Best Use of Digital – UK

The Winner

London Museum London Museum’s new website - using AI to power content relationships between objects & stories


Highly Commended

  • Natural History Museum and SAOLA Studio Visions of Nature

Shortlisted

  • Royal Armouries Digital Playground part of the National Lottery Heritage Funded Digital Vision Project
  • Darlington Borough Council in partnership with PLB ’Experiment!’ Hopetown Darlington
  • Culture Perth and Kinross The Stone of Destiny Experience at Perth Museum
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2025 Winners

In partnership with

Team of the Year

The Winner

National Galleries of Scotland People Team


Highly Commended

  • Glasgow Life Museums Commercial Development and Programming Team

Shortlisted

  • Aerospace Bristol Facilities and Operations Team
  • National Museums Liverpool Visitor Experience Admin Team
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2025 Winners

Community Engagement Programme of the Year

The Winner

Suffolk Archives (Suffolk County Council) Arrivals: Celebrating Migration to Suffolk


Highly Commended

  • Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust Ghost Ships at The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Shortlisted

  • Manchester Museum Manchester Museum Celebrates
  • The Landmark Trust Calverley Old Hall: Crafting Cultures
  • Historic England Historic England Young Advisers
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2025 Winners

International Exhibition of the Year

The Winner

Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) Te Puawānanga Science and Technology Centre


Highly Commended

  • Grand Egyptian Museum Main Galleries

Shortlisted

  • The Kaj Munk Museum, Ringkøbing Fjord Museums Whatever happened? A theatrical soundscape at The Kaj Munk Museum
  • National Holocaust Museum, Studio Louter, OPERA Amsterdam, Office Winhov National Holocaust Museum, Amsterdam
  • AGB Creative Pty Ltd & Western Australian Maritime Museum Empress Josephine’s Garden
  • The Museum of Pop Culture Massive: The Power of Pop Culture
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2025 Winners

In partnership with

Learning Programme of the Year

The Winner

Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester SENsory Atelier programme


Highly Commended

  • International Slavery Museum International Slavery Museum on Tour

Shortlisted

  • Chatsworth House Trust The Big Chatsworth Takeover
  • Historic Royal Palaces Access Fund for Schools
  • Bletchley Park Learning Programme
  • Natural History Museum Natural History Museum & the LEGO Group: Build the Change programme
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2025 Winners

Partnership of the Year

The Winner

Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford The Maasai Living Cultures project


Highly Commended

  • National Museums NI, African Caribbean Support Organisation NI and Northern Ireland Museums Council Global Voices Local Choices – a decolonisation partnership.

Shortlisted

  • Heritage Doncaster, Doncaster City Council Wildlife and Heritage: A Natural Partnership
  • Discovery Museum, North East Museums Steam to Green at Discovery Museum
  • English Heritage Stonehenge - a partnership with the universities of Bournemouth, Leicester and Oxford
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2025 Winners

In partnership with

Restoration or Conservation Project of the Year

Joint Winners

Crystal Palace Park Trust, London Borough of Bromley and Friends of Crystal Palace Subway Restoration of Crystal Palace Subway

and

The Landmark Trust Calverley Old Hall


Shortlisted

  • National Trust, Hill Top Beatrix Potter’s Dolls’ House
  • National Trust, Lanhydrock C:Up - The Long Gallery Ceiling Project at Lanhydrock
  • National Museum of the Royal Navy HMS Victory
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2025 Winners

In partnership with

Shop of the Year

The Winner

Portsmouth City Council - The D-Day Story D-Day 80 Shop Refit


Highly Commended

  • National Football Museum

Shortlisted

  • Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) DCA Shop
  • The National Gallery Bicentenary Year Retail
  • The Real Mary King’s Close Gift shop
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2025 Winners

In partnership with

Volunteers of the Year

The Winner

Derbyshire Scout Archaeology Team Morgause Lomas


Highly Commended

  • London Transport Museum Paul Furze - London Transport Museum’s Bus Man extraordinaire!

Shortlisted

  • Shakespeare’s Globe Access Ambassadors
  • The Box, Plymouth Windrush in the Far Southwest
  • 11Arches, Kynren Kynren - An Epic Tale of England’s Volunteer Team (Archers)
  • Cadw Welsh Government Dance, Dance wherever you may be! Plas Mawr Tudor dance group
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2025 Winners

Sponsored by

Permanent Exhibition of the Year

The Winner

Showtown Blackpool with Casson Mann Showtown Blackpool


Highly Commended

  • Museum of the Home Rooms Through Time: 1878-2049

Shortlisted

  • The Bowes Museum The Curiosity Project
  • Beckford’s Tower a Bath Preservation Trust Museum Beckford’s Tower: Our Tower
  • M Shed A movement not a moment: Protest against racial injustice in Bristol
  • Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery The Mineral Gallery
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2025 Winners

Sponsored by
In partnership with

Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year – budget more than £80k

The Winner

British Library, University of Westminster and Freehaus Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music


Highly Commended

  • Fitzwilliam Museum Glenn Ligon: All Over The Place

Shortlisted

  • Manchester Museum Wild
  • The Design Museum The World of Tim Burton
  • National Trust, Stowe Gardens For Your Tomorrow
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2025 Winners

Sponsored by
In partnership with

Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year – budget less than £80k

The Winner

Ferens Art Gallery Jason Wilsher Mills: Are We There yet


Highly Commended

  • Leeds Museums and Galleries Living With Death: An exhibition exploring death, dying and bereavement

Shortlisted

  • St Albans Museums Catching the Chain
  • Horniman Museum and Gardens Chá, Chai, Tea
  • Whitby Museum Our Lasses - Inspirational Women of Whitby
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2025 Winners

Sponsored by
In partnership with

Marketing + Communications Campaign of the Year

The Winner

Royal Armouries TikTok Debut


Highly Commended

  • Bletchley Park Watch Closely Campaign

Shortlisted

  • National Portrait Gallery Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens
  • Fitzwilliam Museum Marketing and Communications Strategy
  • The British Museum Legion: life in the Roman army
  • Culture Perth and Kinross Perth Museum Opening Campaign
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2025 Winners