News / The Workers Museum, the 2023 winner of the CoE Museum Prize was awarded during a special ceremony in Strasbourg. /

At a special ceremony that took place on 25 April 2023 in Strasbourg’s Palais de L'Europe, the Workers Museum (Copenhagen, Denmark) was awarded with the 2023 Council of Europe Museum Prize and received its trophy. The museum was selected by the Culture Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 5 December 2022.

Receiving the prize from PACE President, Tiny Kox, the Director of the Workers Museum, Søren Bak-Jensen said: “The Council of Europe Museum Prize 2023 confirms us in our effort to communicate the history of the labour movement in a way that strengthens democratic participation and motivates debate in the future of democracy. We are grateful to the Committee for Culture and the European Museum Forum for acknowledging our work and for raising awareness about the value of museums.”

During her speech, Jette Sandahl, the Chairperson of the European Museum Forum, which has organised the prize selection procedure and jury since 1977, said: "The Workers Museum joins a line of Council of Europe prize winners that – in each their very different ways – strive to support the empowerment of their constituents. [...] These are institutions of empathy, compassion and solidarity. They remember and recognize oppression and disenfranchisement, but also know, from experience, that powerlessness can be transformed into personal agency or even collective action.

The Workers Museum is digging deeply into its history, and reshaping the museum around the core concept and democratic idea of assembling, of meeting, of dialogue and respectful discussion across disagreements and divides. In doing so, it is connecting actively with its contemporary constituents, providing for them also a platform of self-confidence, from which to explore, voice and articulate their hopes, their fears and concerns. We congratulate the museum and look forward with anticipation to what more this next phase of democratization will bring."

Being part of the European Museum of the Year Award scheme, the Council of Europe Museum Prize has been awarded annually by the Parliamentary Assembly since 1977. It aims to highlight Europe’s diverse cultural heritage and the interplay between local and European identities.

Links:
Museum Prize page
The Workers Museum on the EMF website
The Workers Museum website
Previous winners of the CoE Museum Prize