Our Museums Change Lives!

Wakefield Museums & Castles have been shortlisted for the Museums Association's Museums Change Lives Best Project Award 2021, for our project A World of Good.

The Museums Change Lives awards are awarded by the Museums Association, the sector body for museums in the UK, to recognise and celebrate outstanding practice by UK museums delivering social impact. They promote the best examples of work by museums and individuals that support communities and engage with contemporary issues. Previous winners of the award include National Museums Northern Ireland and the Jewish Museum London.

We have been shortlisted for the Best Project award for A World of Good, a project designed to inspire positive action on the climate crisis. At the centre of the project is the A World of Good exhibition at Wakefield Museum, which uses sculpture, animation and sound to bring the work of 19^th-century environmentalist Charles Waterton to life. It asks visitors to sign up to an environmental manifesto and make a pledge to take real and meaningful action on the climate crisis.

Gallery view of A World of Good exhibition at Wakefield Museum

Alongside the exhibition, we have produced educational resources for schools and communities, a social media campaign, and events and workshops designed to inspire and motivate you to make a change. We have also written our own action plan to reduce the carbon footprint of our museums and castles.

Councillor Michael Graham, Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure & Sport for Wakefield Council, said “It is great to see the Museums & Castles team being acknowledged for this project, which addresses one of the most urgent contemporary issues we face. Museums play a vital role in engaging and educating people about the world around us and A World of Good is a perfect example of that.”

The winner of the Museums Change Lives award will be announced at the Museums Association annual conference on 8 November 2021 and we'll share the news on our Twitter account.

You can visit the A World of Good exhibition at Wakefield Museum until July 2022, or find out more about the project here