Warsaw POLIN Museum of Polish Jews gets prestigious European award

Established by the European Museum Academy in 2010, it is given to organisations, researchers and cultural institutions for creating pioneering museums or producing studies and carrying on projects of European relevance.

A citation for the prize says that the POLIN Museum in Warsaw “is not just an excellent museum but a state of the art cultural institution which reaches diverse publics all over the world. That is why it deserves the title of a ‘Total Museum’. The diversity and variety of its activities and the scope of its aims and goals makes it a unique institution with a worldwide impact”.

In 2011 the EMA Prize was awarded to the Galileo Museum in Florence, and in 2013 to the Foundation Europeana in The Hague.

The director of the POLIN Museum will collect the prize during a ceremony at the Annual General Meeting of the Europeana Network Association in Riga on 8 November.

Earlier this year, The POLIN museum received the European Museum of the Year Award, a distinction which has been given annually since 1977 by the European Museum Forum, which acts under the auspices of the Council of Europe.

Situated at the site of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto, the POLIN Museum documents 1,000 years of history of Polish Jews and their contribution to various aspects of Polish political, economic and cultural life. (mk/rg)