We are delighted to announce that the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College has won Restoration or Conservation Project of the Year at the Museum + Heritage Awards 2019. The awards celebrated innovative and ground-breaking initiatives from museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions across the UK and overseas.
Talking about the Painted Hall Project (Old Royal Naval College), Diane Lees CBE, Director General of the Imperial War Museums and Chair of the 2019 judging panel, noted: “A pioneering project in scale, scope and ambition the winner successfully created a once in a life time experience enabling close-up access for many thousands of visitors to this ambitious and meticulous conservation work.”
The Painted Hall was up against some tough competition, including the Temperate House Precinct Project (Donald Insall Associates on behalf of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) and Kew Gardens Great Pagoda (Austin-Smith:Lord on behalf of Historic Royal Palaces), which were joint highly commended on the night. The restoration/conservation category was sponsored by the Rochester Bridge Trust.
In addition, a Special Recognition Award was presented to Sir David Attenborough, who said: “I’m truly delighted by this award. Museums are among my favourite places. I don’t need to say to you how important they are to our own civilisation and culture and the trouble is that they are always under attack. I have been involved with them for most of my life, one way or another, and I have never known them actually not being under attack and under-funded. So, if I have contributed to one museum or any other museum in preserving those ideals that are so important to all of us, I’m very grateful indeed that you should think so, if this award is a sign of that thought. Thank you very much.”
Congratulations to all the highly commended and winners at the awards. The full list of winners is available from the Museums + Heritage Awards website.
