The winners of the AHI [Alliance member] 2017 Discover Heritage Awards have been announced. The finalists and winners represent the visitor centres, museums, historic houses, gardens and landscapes which demonstrate best-practice in heritage interpretation.
The award-winners were announced at a ceremony in Inverness in front of an international audience during the joint AHI and Interpret Europe joint conference on interpreting landscapes across Europe.
The Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Mid Ulster won the award for new Visitor Centre with the engaging way they tell the story of the Nobel Prize Laureate and the people and places that inspired him. The British Museum was awarded best in Interpretation for a Target Audience with their touch tour of the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery for blind and visually impaired people. A project connecting people to John Ruskin and his Victorian museum in Sheffield was recognised as best Community Project. The Phoenix-like story of the renovation of the Powerscourt Estate gardens in Co. Wicklow won the award for best Landscape interpretation.
The National Trust won both the awards for their category – Museums and Historic Properties – but also the overall AHI Award for Excellence with their ongoing project called Lifting The Lid Off The Vyne, Hampshire, which interprets the renovation of this Tudor mansion’s roof and includes an accessible rooftop walkway.
AHI also honoured two of its long-standing and influential members, Carl Atkinson and Michael Glen, with Lifetime Achievement Awards.