Bolton Museum bosses are keeping their fingers crossed for the results of a national award.
The Bolton’s Egypt gallery, and partners Leach Studio, have been shortlisted in the Permanent Exhibition of the Year category at the ‘Museum + Heritage Awards’.
The 17th annual ‘Museums + Heritage Awards’ celebrate innovative and ground-breaking initiatives from museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions across the UK and overseas.
Museums large and small – from nationals to one-room volunteer-run museums, from iconic buildings and monuments to the great outdoors, are all celebrated.
Bolton’s Egypt was designed by Leach Studio to highlight the town’s important links to the world of pharaohs and pyramids in a family-friendly, interactive gallery.
The new exhibition space features a full size reproduction of the burial chamber of Thutmose III, which visitors walk through.
It puts on show some of the 15,000 ancient Egyptian artefacts in Bolton’s Egyptology collection including the oldest sample of mummification in the world.
Bolton’s Egyptology collection is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian collections in the UK.
A local mill owner’s daughter, Annie Barlow, was a member of the Egypt Exploration Society in the 19th Century and helped to raise funds for excavations in Egypt.
The Egypt Exploration Society donated numerous finds to the Chadwick Museum – the Victorian forerunner for Bolton Museum.
The museum has welcomed
135,000 visitors since opening on 22 September.
“We are delighted to be shortlisted, with our friends Leach Studio, for the ‘Museum + Heritage Awards’,” said Cllr John Byrne, Executive Cabinet member for Culture.
“The museum has been breaking all records since it re-opened and attracting international interest. It’s up against some stiff competition but we’re all keeping our fingers crossed.”
The winners will be announced on Wednesday 15 May. The other finalists for Permanent Exhibition of the Year are:-
• Horniman Museum and Gardens World Gallery
• RAF Museum RAF Museum RAF Centenary Programme
• National Maritime Museum Endeavour Galleries Project
• Portsmouth Museums, Portsmouth City Council The D-Day Story
• SS Great Britain Trust Being Brunel
• V&A Dundee, Scottish Design Galleries with ZMMA Scottish Design Galleries