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Marsh volunteer award opens for nominations
Regional winners receive a £500 prize with a further £2,000 for the overall winner
The annual Marsh Trust Award, which recognises volunteers for their work helping museums and heritage sites engage with visitors, has opened for nominations.
Museums, galleries and heritage sites across the UK can enter for free online.
Twelve regional winners will receive a £500 and a certificate, while an overall national winner will be presented with £2,000 at a ceremony at the British Museum in London on Monday 19 September 2022.
The awards, which are run by the British Museum in partnership with the Marsh Trust, celebrate “the achievements and contribution of volunteers in museums, galleries and heritage sites all over the United Kingdom, recognising their dedication, innovation and excellence in engaging with the public”.
The judging panel is chaired by Stuart Frost, head of interpretation and volunteers at the British Museum.
The volunteering activity can take place in a museum or off site – or contribute to an online project that supports learning. Individuals or a group of volunteers can enter, and prizes are awarded to the volunteer or volunteers not the museum.
This is the 14th year the awards have been held. Previous overall winners include the interpretation team from the Cleveland Pools Trust in Bath (2021); Rose Byers from Ellisland Museum and Farm, the Scottish rural home of Robert Burns (2020); and Blot on the Landscape volunteer team from Temple Newsam House in Yorkshire (2019).
The 2021 awards took into account work undertaken by volunteers during pandemic lockdowns. Regional winners included Museum From Home activity pack volunteers at Colchester + Ipswich Museums in Suffolk.