2026 WINNERS

Huge congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Museums + Heritage Awards.
The winners were announced at a glittering live ceremony in London on 13th May.

Thank you to our Headline Sponsor

SELECT Category | 2026

Judges’ Special Recognition Award

The Winner

Shanaz Gulzar, Creative Director, Bradford UK City of Culture 2025


2026 Winners

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Visitor Accessibility Award

The Winner

Victoria and Albert Museum Design and Disability


Shortlisted

  • The Royal Air Force Museum
  • Historic Royal Palaces Access Guides and Access Videos
  • Castle Howard Access and inclusion at Castle Howard: welcoming everyone
  • The Cartoon Museum Accessible Welcome
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2026 Winners

Museums + Heritage Business of the Year

The Winner

Smartify


Shortlisted

  • Harwell Restoration
  • Losonnante
  • TownsWeb Archiving
  • Victoria Eggs
  • Vox Group
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2026 Winners

Sector Impact Award

Joint Winners

UAL Decolonising Arts Institute 20/20

and

Birmingham Museums Trust Birmingham Museums Trust’s Citizens Jury


Shortlisted

  • National Museums Liverpool Recruitment Outreach Programme
  • The C Word: The Conservators' Podcast
  • Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance and GEM Working Together: Embedding health and wellbeing leadership in museums and heritage organisations
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2026 Winners

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Visitor Welcome Award

The Winner

National Football Museum Visitor First – A world class welcome for every visitor, every day


Highly Commended

  • Japan House London Omotenashi in practice: delivering welcome through attentiveness and care

Shortlisted

  • Dorset Museum & Art Gallery Dorset Museum & Art Gallery Visitor Services Team
  • Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum & Tour
  • Red Lodge (Bristol Museums) Spooky Week: A Walk Through Time
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2026 Winners

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Sustainable Project of the Year

Joint Winners

Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace - Harmonising Heritage and Sustainability

and

Gloucestershire Archives Green Pledge Project


Shortlisted

  • Wardlaw Museum, University of St Andrews Rewrite the Future
  • Science and Industry Museum Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery at the Science and Industry Museum
  • Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Wild Uplands at Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture
  • Natural History Museum Fixing Our Broken Planet
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2026 Winners

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Best Use of Digital – International

The Winner

St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation The Caravaggio Wing at St John's Co-Cathedral, Malta


Shortlisted

  • Qatar Museums AI Tour
  • State Library Victoria Mouthful of Dust
  • Industrimuseet Horsens The Director's Dilemma
  • Catalan Heritage Agency – Government of Catalonia Els ulls de la història: An immersive digital journey into Catalan heritage
  • Ralph Appelbaum Associates Encounters, The National WWI Museum and Memorial
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2026 Winners

Best Use of Digital – UK

The Winner

National Science and Media Museum Bradford Digital Creatives


Highly Commended

  • Sainsbury Centre Day Release

Shortlisted

  • Cadw and Jam Creative Studios Ltd Dynamic, Immersive Storytelling: Wealth, power and dangerous liaisons at Caerphilly Castle.
  • UCL Grant Museum of Zoology World of Wasps
  • The National Gallery Imaginarium
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2026 Winners

In partnership with

Team of the Year

The Winner

Culture Leicestershire, Leicestershire County Council Villiers Revealed: We Have Always Been Here


Shortlisted

  • Manchester City Galleries Collections Care and Management Team
  • Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester Marketing Team
  • Wellcome Collection Visitor Experience & Engagement - Delivering Inclusive and Accessible Experiences
  • Jane Austen’s House Jane Austen’s House Staff
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2026 Winners

Community Engagement Programme of the Year

The Winner

Horniman Museum and Gardens All Eyes on Her!: Community Stewardship for Institutional Change


Highly Commended

  • Gunnersbury Park Museum Peoples Unite! How Southall changed the country
  • The Bowes Museum Unheard Voices, bringing The Bowes Museum to HMP Deerbolt

Shortlisted

  • The Roman Baths Sanctuary at The Roman Baths
  • Touchstones Rochdale Side-by-Side
  • Maison Dieu (Dover Town Hall) Reawakening the Maison Dieu Community Engagement
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2026 Winners

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International Exhibition of the Year

The Winner

Universalmuseum Joanneum, Schloss Eggenberg Ambition & Illusion. Schloss Eggenberg: the Staging of a World


Highly Commended

  • Ralph Appelbaum Associates Lost Shtetl Museum

Shortlisted

  • ATELIER BRÜCKNER Grand Egyptian Museum – Tutankhamun Gallery
  • Tūhura Otago Museum Mums Build a Summer Exhibition to Inspire the Next Generation
  • Suzhou Museum × Gold Mantis Culture Development Co Ltd “I Am Ashurbanipal: King of Assyria” — British Museum Collections at Suzhou Museum
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2026 Winners

In partnership with

Learning Programme of the Year

The Winner

London Museum Young Londoners' Archive Schools Programme


Highly Commended

  • Turner Contemporary An Apple a Day

Shortlisted

  • Beamish, The Living Museum of the North Innovative work placement project for SEND and alternative provision school students
  • Historic England Heritage Schools
  • Powderham Access All Learning: Education on an Event Site
  • The National Civil War Centre and Newark Museum The National Civil War Centre's The World Turned Upside Down Learning Programme
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2026 Winners

In partnership with

Partnership of the Year

The Winner

North Yorkshire Council Out of the Box Learning


Highly Commended

  • Exhibition Road Cultural Group South Ken ZEN+ Programme

Shortlisted

  • Derby Museums in partnership with Vaillant UK Inspiring future makers and engineers in Derby
  • Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, Bernat Klein Foundation & National Trust for Scotland Bernat Klein Studio Coalition
  • English Heritage Taskmaster and English Heritage Team Up
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2026 Winners

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In partnership with

Restoration or Conservation Project of the Year

The Winner

Norfolk Museums Service Norwich Castle: A Royal Palace Reborn



Highly Commended

  • Durham University Conserving the Durham Shakespeare First Folio

Shortlisted

  • Cannington Shaw Preservation Trust CIC No7 Bottle Shop
  • Dover District Council, The Landmark Trust; Haverstock, Ingham Pinnock Associates & Pitsilli Graham Reawakening the Maison Dieu
  • Buttress Architects & Preston City Council Harris Your Place: The Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library
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2026 Winners

In partnership with

Shop of the Year

The Winner

Chatsworth House The Orangery Shop


Highly Commended

  • Museum of the Home Museum Shop

Shortlisted

  • University of Oxford Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum Shop
  • Derby Museums Museum of Making's sustainable retail season
  • National Theatre National Theatre Bookshop
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2026 Winners

In partnership with

Volunteers of the Year

Joint Winners

The Hovercraft Museum CIO Rising Above: 45 Volunteers Delivering a Nationally Significant Museum

and

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Nick Ezra, Punjab Registers Comparison Project


Shortlisted

  • Wolverhampton Arts and Culture Wolverhampton Art Gallery Volunteer Visitor Ambassadors
  • East Grinstead Museum World War II remembered
  • Ullapool Museum Trust Ullapool Museum Young Curators
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2026 Winners

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Permanent Exhibition of the Year

The Winner

Avoncroft Museum of Buildings Revealing the Hidden Stories of the Showmen Community


Shortlisted

  • Natural History Museum Fixing Our Broken Planet
  • ZMMA Poole Museum
  • Shoemakers Museum Place, people and purpose
  • Science and Industry Museum Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery
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2026 Winners

In partnership with

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

The Winner

The National Archives MI5: Official Secrets


Shortlisted

  • The National Gallery Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers
  • Manchester Museum and Air Giants The Cat That Slept for a Thousand Years
  • Wellcome Collection 1880 THAT: Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader
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2026 Winners

In partnership with

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

The Winner

Food Museum School Dinners


Highly Commended

  • Museum of Transology TRANSCESTRY: 10 years of the Museum of Transology
  • New Forest Heritage Centre & Romani Community Archaeology The Close

Shortlisted

  • Thackray Museum of Medicine Poo!
  • Winchester Cathedral Whales
  • The Harris (Preston City Council) Wallace and Gromit In A Case at the Museum
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2026 Winners

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In partnership with

Marketing + Communications Campaign of the Year

The Winner

The Fitzwilliam Museum Made in Ancient Egypt Marketing and Communications campaign


Highly Commended

  • Imperial War Museums VE Day 80th Anniversary PR campaign

Shortlisted

  • Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre Nara
  • Cyfarthfa Foundation and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council Cyfarthfa200 – Maximising a Historical Milestone
  • Natural History Museum Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?
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2026 Winners