Annual Awards
Celebrating the Best of UK Heritage
Every year, the Experience History Awards bring the heritage community together to recognise, celebrate, and shine a light on the people and places that make the UK's museum and heritage sector what it is.
Why These Awards Are Different
Awards that come from the people who actually turned up
Winning an Experience History Award means something because it comes from the people who actually visited, looked around, and thought: this place deserves to be celebrated.
Nominated by the public
By the visitors, volunteers, teachers, families, and history enthusiasts who use these institutions and feel their value firsthand.
Open to every institution
Any listed institution, regardless of size, budget, or profile. A small museum doing extraordinary things is just as eligible as a major national institution.
Decided by the public
The institution that best connects people with the past in a way that is meaningful, accessible, and memorable is the one that wins. In many ways, that is the point.
Award Categories
Seven ways to celebrate the sector
From the headline Museum of the Year to the Hidden Gem Award, each category celebrates a different dimension of what makes heritage matter.
Headline Award
Museum of the Year
The headline award, open to any museum or gallery listed on Experience History regardless of size, location, or budget. Voted on by the public — by the people who visited and experienced it. A small museum doing extraordinary things with limited resources is just as eligible as a major national institution. In many ways, that is the point.
Public nominations & vote
Family & Younger Visitors
Best Family Experience
For the museum, gallery, heritage site, or event that has done the most to make history genuinely welcoming and engaging for families. This award looks for more than a colouring sheet at the front desk — it recognises institutions that have thought carefully about how families move through a space and how children of different ages engage with collections.
Voted by families & carers
Temporary or Permanent
Exhibition of the Year
For the single most compelling, thoughtfully researched, and imaginatively presented exhibition staged during the award year. A great exhibition does more than display objects — it tells a story, creates an atmosphere, asks a question, or offers a perspective that shifts the way you see something. Open to exhibitions of any scale and on any subject.
Public nominations welcome
Outreach & Engagement
Community Impact Award
For the institution that has done the most to engage its local community — reaching beyond its usual audience to make heritage meaningful and accessible to people who might not traditionally walk through its doors. That might mean outreach with schools, social prescribing partnerships, community archive projects, or a quiet, consistent commitment to being genuinely useful.
Nominations from community members & partners
Under the Radar
Hidden Gem Award
For the museum, gallery, or heritage site that most deserves to be better known. Every corner of the UK has one — a museum that surprises visitors who stumble across it, a collection that punches far above its weight. The Hidden Gem is the place that makes visitors feel they have found something special, and immediately want to tell their friends about it.
Primarily driven by public nominations
Formal & Informal Learning
Educational Offer of the Year
For the institution that has made the greatest contribution to learning — formal or informal, in the building or beyond it. Open to school visits programmes, online learning resources, teacher training, community education, Saturday clubs, or public lectures. What matters is quality, accessibility, and impact.
Nominations from teachers, schools & learners
Volunteer-led Heritage
Local History Society of the Year
For the local history group that has done the most to research, record, and share the history of its community. Run almost entirely by volunteers, often with minimal resources, these societies do work that would otherwise simply not get done — researching obscure corners of local history, preserving photographs and documents that would otherwise be lost, and passing knowledge to the next generation. Open to any group listed in the Experience History Local History directory.
Nominations from members, schools & local authorities
How It Works
From nomination to winner
All winners are decided by the public — the people who have visited, experienced, and love these museums, heritage sites, and societies.
September
Nominations Open
Anyone can nominate. No membership, expertise, or registration required.
Late October
Nominations Close
All submissions reviewed and shortlists compiled across every category.
November
Shortlists & Voting
Shortlisted institutions announced publicly. Voting opens across all categories.
January
Winners Announced
Winners revealed across the newsletter, website, and social media.
What Winners Receive
Something tangible and something meaningful
Every winner receives recognition that travels — beyond the ceremony and into their institution, their community, and their audience.
Designed to be displayed proudly. Something worth putting on a shelf.
For websites, social media, email signatures, and printed materials.
For the counter, window, or front door. Immediately visible to every visitor.
A dedicated piece about the winning institution, written in collaboration and published to our full audience.
A dedicated spotlight in the awards edition — one of our most widely shared issues of the year.
Announced across the Experience History social channels to our full following of history enthusiasts.
How to Nominate
Anyone can nominate. No expertise required.
Nominations open every September and close in late November. If you have visited a museum that moved you, attended an exhibition that stayed with you, or discovered a local history group that deserves more recognition, we want to hear from you. Institutions are also welcome to put themselves forward — self-nomination is not a disadvantage.
Ready to nominate?
Nominations for the 2027 awards open in September. Sign up to the newsletter to be notified the moment nominations open — and to follow the shortlists, voting, and winner announcements throughout the season.
Sponsor the Awards
An opportunity for organisations that share our values to align themselves with the best of the UK heritage sector. Sponsorship is available for individual award categories. All arrangements are subject to our editorial independence policy — the outcome of the awards is never influenced by commercial relationships. Get in touch to explore sponsorship.