Leeds Museums & Galleries wins Educational Initiative of the Year

Leeds Museums & Galleries are celebrating today after winning a major award at the coveted Museums + Heritage Awards ceremony last night. The Leeds Curriculum won Educational Initiative of the Year, while Battle Bus (London Transport Museum) and RAF Museum RAF Centenary Programme (RAF Museum) were joint Highly commended.

The Leeds Curriculum was developed by Leeds Museums & Galleries in collaboration with over 40 arts and culture organisations and 30 primary schools, to bring together the expertise of learning and arts professionals in the city. It puts Leeds and it’s wealth of arts and culture organisations at the centre of its programming, and is designed to enhance the learning experiences of children in the city through a growing set of Key Stage 2 online teaching and learning resources.

Teachers from across Leeds can access the resources through MyLearning.org. There are currently five themes to explore which support creative learning across different key stages and range from prehistoric Leeds to the city’s industrial heritage and life in Leeds today. Using key objects from the 1.3million items in the Leeds Museums & Galleries collection, the creative resources aim to support learning professionals with their own syllabuses.

Leader of Leeds City Council, Cllr Judith Blake, said: “We work incredibly hard throughout the year to provide at all our Leeds Museums & Galleries sites a varied and compelling educational programme that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

“It is fantastic news that our Leeds Curriculum programme, which was created in conjunction with a number of partner organisations to support learning for primary school pupils in our city, has been recognised with such a prestigious award by Museums + Heritage. The feedback from both teachers and pupils to our Leeds Curriculum programme has been extremely positive; we are keen to build on and further improve our educational offer at Leeds Museums & Galleries.”

Kate Fellows, Lifelong Learning Manager, Leeds Museums and Galleries said: “We are absolutely overjoyed to have been chosen as the winners! It’s testament to the hard work and enthusiasm that made The Leeds Curriculum a reality and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved. We are passionate about our city and this recognition from our peers shows that place-based learning can be a successful and sustainable way to encourage the next generation of learners.”

Talking about the Leeds Curriculum, Diane Lees CBE, Director General of the Imperial War Museums and Chair of the 2019 judging panel, noted: “With an innovative sense of place and responding to the needs of its locality, this winning project has enormous ambition and is making a significant impact which is set to benefit children for years to come.”

The awards celebrated innovative and ground-breaking initiatives from museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions across the UK and overseas.

Leeds Museums & Galleries was also shortlisted for the Higher Education Institution Achievement award by the Creative Learning Guild for ‘Breaking the mould: creating evidence based, arts savvy initial teacher training’ in March 2019.

ENDS

For more information please contact Sara Merritt, Audience Development Officer – sara.merritt@leeds.gov.uk / 0113 535 0931

Notes to Editors

About Leeds Museums & Galleries

www.leeds.gov.uk/museums

Leeds Museums & Galleries is the largest local authority-run museum service in England and has one of the larger and most significant multidisciplinary collections in the UK. They care for 1.3 million objects which they use to inspire, educate, entertain and challenge the people of Leeds and visitors to the city. They run nine historic sites and visitor attractions, welcoming over 1.6 million visitors each year, accounting for around a quarter of all museum visits across Yorkshire.

About Leeds Curriculum

https://www.mylearning.org/collections/leeds-curriculum

INFO REQUIRED

Museums + Heritage Awards 2019 Winners:

Innovation of the Year - Sponsored by THE HUB

Winner: They Shall Not Grow Old (14-18 NOW and Imperial War Museum)

Highly commended: Inside Out - Scottish Submarine Centre (Scottish Submarine Trust)

Restoration or Conservation Project of the Year - Sponsored by ROCHESTER BRIDGE TRUST

Winner: Painted Hall Project (Old Royal Naval College)

Joint highly commended: Temperate House Precinct Project (Donald Insall Associates on behalf of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew)

Joint highly commended: Kew Gardens Great Pagoda (Austin-Smith:Lord on behalf of Historic Royal Palaces).

Educational Initiative of the Year

Winner: Leeds Curriculum (Leeds Museums & Galleries)

Joint highly commended: Battle Bus (London Transport Museum)

Joint highly commended: RAF Museum RAF Centenary Programme (RAF Museum)

Shop of the Year turnover less than £500k

Winner: Retail Transformation at the Florence Nightingale Museum (Florence Nightingale Museum)

Shop of the Year turnover more than £500k

Winner: BALTIC Shop Refurbishment (BALTIC Shop, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art)

Limited Budget Project of the Year

Winner: Wonder Women of Space Exhibition (Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath).

Highly commended: Chichester Roman Week 2018 (The Novium Museum)

Marketing Campaign of the Year - Sponsored by BVA BDRC

Winner: Look at this Absolute Unit (The Museum of English Rural Life)

Highly commended: Bash Street's Back at The McMenace (The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum, Leisure & Culture Dundee).

Individual Volunteer of the Year - In partnership with AIM

Winner: John Jenkins (The D-Day Story)

Joint highly commended: Carl Clee 'Our Bee Man' (National Museums Liverpool)

Joint highly commended: Gordon Clitheroe (Pickering Beck Isle Museum)

Volunteer Team of the Year - In partnership with AIM

Winner: Multaka-Oxford Volunteer Team (History of Science Museum and Pitt Rivers Museums, University of Oxford Museums).

Highly commended: Liverpool Women’s History Group (National Museums Liverpool)

Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year - Sponsored by Displayways

Winner: Spanish Flu: Nursing During History's Deadliest Pandemic (Florence Nightingale Museum)

Joint highly commended: China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors (National Museums Liverpool)

Joint highly commended: Ladies of Quality & Distinction (The Foundling Museum)

Partnership of the Year - Supported by ACE

Winner: Dippy on Tour, a natural history adventure (Natural History Museum, Dorset County Museum and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Ulster Museum in Belfast)

Highly commended: Multaka-Oxford (Oxford University Gardens, Libraries & Museums)

International Project of the Year, less than £1m

Winner: Gapu-Monuk Saltwater: Journey to Sea Country (Australian National Maritime Museum)

Highly commended: Escher Op Reis / Escher's Journey (Fries Museum /XPEX Experience Experts)

International Project of the Year, more than £1m

Winner: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Permanent Exhibition of the Year

Winner: Being Brunel (SS Great Britain Trust)

Highly Commended: Endeavour Galleries Project (National Maritime Museum)