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POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Wins Prestigious EMA Prize

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POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews has been awarded the prestigious European Museum Academy Prize.

The honour recognises the Warsaw museum as ‘a unique institution with a worldwide impact’.

In a statement from the EMA, the Board described the cultural and educational centre as a ‘Total Museum’: “It is not just an excellent museum but a state of the art cultural institution which reaches diverse publics all over the world. Polin Museum meets the criteria for this prize at its maximum.”

The EMA Prize was established in 2010 and has previously been awarded twice – to the Galileo Museum in Florence, Italy in 2011 and to the Foundation Europeana in The Hague, Netherlands in 2013.

Winners are selected from submissions by the academy’s pool of experts, national representatives, international supporters or other groups involved in EMA activities.

POLIN Museum opened in 2013 and celebrates a thousand years of Polish Jewish history. It is located in an area long associated with the Jewish community in Warsaw. During World War II, the Nazis turned it into the Warsaw Ghetto.

The building was designed by Finnish studio Lahdelma & Mahlamäki and received the prestigious Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award while still under construction in 2008.

EMA’s Board praised the museum’s wide range of outreach projects and facilities including the Resource Centre, the Virtual Shtetl, the Global Education Outreach Programme, and the Museum on Wheels.

Main image kind courtesy W. Kryński / POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

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