Among the numerous nominated European institutions, it was the Białystok museum that received a prestigious recognition — a special award for its activities.
The European Museum Academy is an international association of museum experts that regularly awards the EMA Prize. In the “Luigi Micheletti Award” category, the awards are granted by the EMA in cooperation with the Micheletti Foundation. In this year edition, the Sybir Memorial Museum in Białystok was nominated in this category.
According to the judges: “The Sybir Memorial Museum convincingly conveys the history of the deportations and the related problems of the local community. It uses history to engage visitors, students and volunteers. Interesting fragments of the narrative are offered via the website and an impressive series of publications. The subject includes a wider European area, implemented with style and the total commitment of the director and staff, enhancing the significance of the growing importance of history.”
The organizers of the competition appreciated websites such as sybir.bialystok.pl (the museum’s main website), swiatsybiru.pl (a popular science portal featuring publications by distinguished researchers, information about collections, and photos, co-managed with the Mieroszewski Centre in Warsaw), and relacjezsybiru.pl (under construction, a portal with witnesses of history’s accounts or their descendants, in audio/video form).
During the press conference organized at the Sybir Memorial Museum, the Mayor of the city of Białystok emphasized the uniqueness of the institution:
“The Sybir Memorial Museum is an extraordinary place on the map of our city. It gives me a lot of satisfaction that we managed to create this institution in Białystok. Congratulations on another award, granted at the International Forum. I am glad that the museum’s activities are noticed and appreciated both in Poland and abroad,” he said.
Professor Wojciech Śleszyński, Director of the Sybir Memorial Museum, emphasized that this is already the second prestigious European museum award that the institution had received this year. In April 2024, the museum was awarded the Council of Europe Museum Award.
“I would like to say a special thank you to the Mayor of the City of Białystok, Tadeusz Truskolaski, for trusting us in 2017 and believing that the six-member team that started the construction would be able to create such a museum. I would also like to say thank you to the Deputy President of Białystok, Mr. Rafał Rudnicki, for his daily support for the Sybir Memorial Museum. A huge thank you to the entire team and to you – journalists – because without your work our activities would not reach such a wide audience,” he said.
Participating in the international awards gala, which took place on October 3-6 in Nicosia, was a unique opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas with representatives of renowned European museums. The event was attended by Karolina Miłkowska and Sylwia Szarejko, PhD, from the Sybir Memorial Museum.
“As an employee of the Sybir Memorial Museum, but also from every museum employee’s perspective, receiving such an award is a dream come true. We were extremely pleased to hear positive opinions about our publications, the tour route and all the museum’s activities. It was a beautiful experience for us and I hope that there will be more such moments,” said Sylwia Szarejko, PhD during the conference.
The main prize in the Luigi Micheletti category, in which the Sybir Memorial Museum won the distinction, was awarded to the Carl Nielsen Museum from Denmark.
Thank you for this recognition. It is an honour for us to be among the best!
