The Museum of Innocence Wins Museum of the Year

Just when you thought Orhan Pamuk had nothing left to win, his Museum of Innocence has been named the European Museum of the Year. If you can't get to Istanbul this year, read his catalog, The Innocence of Objects, and of course his walloping novel. In a thousand years there will never be a better story about this museum than Sandy Leonard's.

The jury said, "The Museum of Innocence can be seen simply as a historical museum of Istanbul life in the second half of 20th century. It is also, however, a museum created by writer Orhan Pamuk as an integral, object-based version of the fictional love story of his novel of the same name. The Museum of Innocence is meant as a small and personal, local and sustainable model for new museum development. The Museum of Innocence inspires and establishes innovative, new paradigms for the museum sector. This museum fulfils to the highest degree the notion of 'public quality,' from the point of view both of heritage and of the public."

The EMYA is 37 years old. Last year's winner was the Riverside Museum in Glasgow. 

Comments

[Sandy]

Yay! and Yay! again. This is great news and I'm happy to have learned it from 'Band of Thebes.' Thank you, Stephen, for your kind words. And thank you, too, for 'The Innocence of Objects,' which takes me back to the museum on a regular basis. Jay and I are returning to the actual museum this coming September and are curious to see how the "open to the public" museum has changed (if at all) from when we were gifted with our surprise visit months before its doors officially opened.