MARQ from Alicante won the DASA Prize 2024 awarded by the European Academy of Museums. This award, which was presented yesterday evening during a ceremony organized in Cyprus, accredits it as the best European museum in terms of didactic, educational and social responsibility projects.
The general director of the CV MARQ Foundation, José Alberto Cortés, was responsible for collecting this award for which, in addition to the Provincial Council Museum of Alicante, the Leeds Museum in the United Kingdom, the Hugh Lane Museum in Dublin (Ireland ),, the Futurium in Berlin (Germany), the Municipal Museum of Aarau in Switzerland and the Departmental Museum of Buzau in Romania. Additionally, MARQ was the only Spanish museum who participated in this competition.
“This award consolidates the international trajectory of MARQ and recognizes the important informative activity on history that the museum carries out for all audiences, in particular for children and the most vulnerable groups, with high quality programming that includes historical recreations, guides and adaptations and dramatized visits, conferences or seminars, among other activities”, highlighted the president of the provincial institution, Toni Pérez, after learning of the awarding of this prestigious award.
Likewise, the president confirmed that Alicante proposed to accommodate delivery in 2026 of the DASA AWARD awards of the European Academy of Museums, which will be held next year in Budapest.
These awards highlight the educational programs of cultural centers and museums, both for schoolchildren and vulnerable groups at risk of social exclusion, the disabled, migrants and the elderly, among others, who establish a link with the communities that are most important to them. , to encourage their active participation directly or in collaboration with associations and public or private entities, which stand out for an innovative and daring approach, with the aim of facilitating access to culture for all citizens, regardless of their origin, their level of education and their abilities.
The EMA, European Museum Academy, a non-profit foundation based in the Netherlands, was created on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the death of museologist Kenneth Hudson (1916-1999) by a group of professionals from the museum world and European cultural organization who participated with Hudson in the creation of the European Museum of the Year award, under the auspices of the Council of Europe and with the patronage of Queen Fabiola of Belgium. Your goals are preserving the legacy of Kenneth Hudson and disseminate the ideas and values of this pioneer of modern museology to new generations of cultural and museum professionals on a European scale.
Committed to the development of research in the field of innovation, training and the opening of European cultural centers and museums to the nearest society, the EMA organizes the Children in Museums awards each year for its programming intended for under 14s. the DASA prizes for didactics, accessibility and social responsibility and the Micheletti prizes, for museographic discourses and innovative scientific content of European cultural centers and museums.
DASAs focus on educational programsin accessibility and social responsibility, by promoting, on the one hand, the programs themselves developed, and on the other hand, the opportunities for learning, training and connection of European cultural centers and museums with citizens and the territory in which they are implemented.
The Didactics, Accessibility, Llumiq Club and Social Responsibility Unit of the MARQ Foundation, established in 2005, has extensive experience in these areas, which allowed it to win the DASA 2024 award.
