Congratulations to the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, which has won the prestigious Museum Prize 2013, which comes with a monetary award of 100,000 euros.
The award — based on the votes of the museum-going public — was announced April 4 by the sponsors of the prize, the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation and the BankGiro Lottery.
The Museum web site states that some 29,000 members of the public voted for their favorite museums at museumprijs.nl.
With slightly more than 40 percent of the votes, the Jewish Historical Museum came in first, over the other candidates: the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum (with 21.76 per cent), Museum de Koloniehof in Frederiksoord (19.43 per cent), and Museum Dr8888 in Drachten (18.72 per cent).
A panel of museum professionals selected the candidate museums from a pool of 43 entrants. The eligibility requirements differ from year to year; this year, the panel was in search of the museum ‘best able to forge a bond with a particular group or community’. The Jewish Historical Museum won the prize in part because of its launch of the Jewish Monument Community, an interactive website where people can search for lost family members and engage each other in discussion.
The Jewish Historical Museum was founded in 1932. For the past 25 years, it has been located in a complex of four 17th and 18th-century synagogues in the Amsterdam city centrer. The Museum Prize, established in 1990, is the most prestigious prize awarded by public vote in the Dutch museum sector. The previous winner, in 2012, was the nature museum Fryslân in Leeuwarden.