The Museum of Ethnography among the finalists for the Luigi Micheletti Award

On September 27, 2025, the European Museum Academy (EMA) held its annual conference at the Hungarian Money Museum and Visitor Center in Budapest, where the winners of this year's Luigi Micheletti Award were announced at a formal awards ceremony. This year's Luigi Micheletti Award went to the Obersalzberg Documentation Center. The Museum of Ethnography was among the finalists for this prestigious European award, having earned the recognition of the international jury with its permanent collection exhibition, which opened a year ago. 

The Luigi Micheletti Award is one of the continent's most important prizes, awarded to museums that have excelled in innovation and creativity in the fields of contemporary history, industry, and science. The award was established in 1996 and has since been given to institutions that have been able to go beyond traditional museum narratives with their innovative approaches, seeking new ways to engage their audiences. The award, administered by the Luigi Micheletti Foundation, is currently managed by the European Museum Academy. The range of applicants is now extremely wide: in addition to museums, science and visitor centers are also eligible to apply. The Luigi Micheletti Award is a prestigious European award that recognizes innovative institutions in 20th-century history, science, and industry, to showcase best museum practices and encourage new, creative approaches to storytelling.

This year's award ceremony was particularly significant, as it was the first time that the EMA conference and the Luigi Micheletti Award ceremony were held in Hungary. This is not only recognition for the Hungarian museum profession, but also proof that Hungarian museums are becoming increasingly important players in the European museum scene. In 2023, the Hungarian Money Museum took home the DASA Award, also presented annually by the EMA, which recognizes outstanding museum education programs. This year, the Hungarian House of Music competed in two categories, both for the DASA Award and the Luigi Micheletti Award, and was a finalist in the former. After the presentations at the conference, all participants were able to vote for the audience favorite, and the participating experts chose the Hungarian House of Music for this recognition.

The Ethnographic Museum's collection exhibition – a network of stories

The Museum of Ethnography made it to the finals with its new permanent exhibition, which opened in 2022 and takes a totally fresh approach to the museum's objects and how they're displayed. The exhibition space, covering almost 3,000 square meters, houses more than 3,600 artifacts and 1,600 photographs, organized into eight thematic units. The aim of the exhibition is to present the complex and rich history of the museum's collection in such a way that every visitor can connect with the objects and their worlds through their personal experiences.

Storytelling is at the heart of the exhibition's concept. The opening chapter, The Life of Objects, illustrates how complex social, cultural, and historical processes can be presented through the life story of an object. Visitors can learn, for example, how the funerary figurine of a Khanty shaman found its way to a relative of the shaman who lived more than a hundred years later, or how the stories of an 18th-century bridal chest can evoke the fates of families spanning generations. The exhibition is not only about the relationship between objects and people, but also about the history of the museum and the circumstances of its collections, approached from a critical perspective.

The collection exhibition of the Museum of Ethnography features cultures from five continents alongside Hungarian stories, offering dialogue and new possibilities for interpretation. The curators have deliberately avoided artificial reconstructions: every object on display has a real, documented history, supported by sources uncovered during museum collections and research.

The visitor experience is enriched by a number of innovative solutions: animated short films, interactive maps, object biographies, and elements specifically designed for children, such as animal stories accessible through keyholes and a storybook to take home. At the end of the exhibition, visitors are treated to an immersive, summarizing projection, where the objects on display come to life once again from a new perspective.

International professional recognition, celebrations in Budapest with family programs

Being among the finalists for the Luigi Micheletti Award is an outstanding professional achievement, confirming that the Museum of Ethnography's new exhibition is exemplary not only in a domestic but also in an international context.  The international jury emphasized that the museum uniquely combines authentic scientific foundations with an engaging, audience-friendly presentation, while boldly undertaking a critical examination of the past and presenting contemporary social issues.

This year's conference and awards ceremony in Budapest drew attention to the fact that museums are not only guardians of the past, but also active participants in current social dialogues. We can all be active participants in this when visiting the Museum of Ethnography, through guided tours, programs, international conferences, or the entertaining Saturday programs for young and old alike announced for October 5, the anniversary of the birth of founder János Xántus, or the one-year anniversary of the collection exhibition.