Hastings Museum shortlisted for the Best Small Museum Project Award

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery has been shortlisted for the Best Small Museum Project Award at the Museums Change Lives Awards 2024 for their collaboration with The Refugee Buddy Project on the exhibition ‘Illuminating Invisible Histories: Flavours Without Borders’.

‘Illuminating Invisible Histories: Flavours Without Borders’ was a large collaborative project that began with a dinner party, which aimed to make stories of migration to Hastings visible. Guests at the dinner shared stories of migration and seeking refuge through objects with personal meaning to them. These stories and objects were then featured in an exhibition over the summer at Hastings Museum. This enabled visitors to discover more about the diverse culture of Hastings and explore the significant objects on display.

The Museums Change Lives Awards celebrate the achievements of museums that are making a difference to the lives of their audiences and communities across the UK. 

This year’s awards will take place in Leeds on Tuesday 12 November 2024, as part of the Museums Association’s annual conference. 

The awards have four categories:

• The Championing Social Justice Award recognises the best example of a museum working with their communities to overcome challenges of exclusion and achieve equality of opportunity.
• The Best Museums Change Lives Project Award recognises the best project in the past year that reflects one or more of the themes of the Museums Association’s Museums Change Lives campaign: Promoting Health and Wellbeing; Creating Better Places; and Inspiring Engagement, Reflection and Debate.
• The Best Small Museum Project Award recognises the best project at museums with an annual turnover of less than £320,000.
• The Radical Changemaker Award recognises the achievements of an individual in promoting one or more of the themes of the Museums Change Lives campaign in their museum.

To view the full shortlist for the Museums Change Lives Awards 2024, please visit the Museums Association website.

Cllr Adele Bates, lead councillor for arts, culture, tourism, equalities, and community engagement at Hastings Borough Council, said:

“We are delighted to hear that Hastings Museum & Art Gallery and The Refugee Buddy Project have been recognised for their hard work on this project by being shortlisted for this award. I was thrilled to personally be involved in the celebration of this project at Refugee Week this year, and so I am excited to see this important work being recognised at a national level, leading as a brilliant example to inspire others.

“The museum team actively showcase the variety of cultures and history that Hastings holds, to provide visitors with an interesting and informative visit. You can find all the fascinating exhibitions on display at the museum at hmag.org.uk./”

Rossana Leal, CEO, The Refugee Buddy Project, added:

“We are pleased to be shortlisted for this award as it highlights the fantastic work we have all been doing here on the South East coast to bring to life seldom told stories of the various communities which make Hastings the magical place we live in.”