European Museum of the Year 2017: Güímar Pyramid Ethnographic Park hopes to win, but should it?

[Janet]

The Güímar Ethnographic Park was longlisted last August for the European Museum of the Year 2017. Now all 42 longlisted museums have now been visited and the judges are deliberating the winner. The prize was established by the European Museum Forum and aimed at highlighting the new challenges and the quality of museums in Europe. The award was founded in 1977 under the auspices of the Council of Europe with the purpose of recognizing excellence in the European museum scene and to promote innovation processes in the world of museums.

The Güímar Ethnographic Park was the only Spanish entry in the longlist, with the final award to be announced next week in Zagreb, Croatia, between 3 and 6 May. David Valcárcel Ortiz, Scientific Director of Pirámides de Güímar, will represent the Ethnographic Park at the event through a presentation of the museum followed by a public interview, as part of the process defined by the board of judges to determine the winner of this prestigious award.

The recent opening of the Sustainable Garden at the Ethnographic Park has played a key role in the museum's nomination, as it represents a new model for the development of endemic Canarian gardens. The Sustainable Garden, developed in collaboration with the University of La Laguna, displays and promotes the values of sustainability throughout a 1000 square metre reproduction of a typical Canarian barranco including its characteristic flora and even a water course with specimens of European eel.

The award is Europe's longest-running and most prestigious museum prize, with past recipients including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the National Railway Museum in York, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; the winner in 2016 was the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

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[Nova]

...displays and promotes the values of sustainability throughout a 1000 square metre reproduction of a typical Canarian barranco including its characteristic flora and even a water course with specimens of European eel.

Because there aren't enough barrancos in Tenerife to just use a barranco, they had to reproduce one? 

[Michael]

Because there aren't enough barrancos in Tenerife to just use a barranco, they had to reproduce one? 

Maybe they wanted one they could let Germans loose in safely. 

[Janet]

it's because real barrancos dry out, whereas here they can keep it supplied with water and therefore keep live stuff in it ...

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

How do I sign up to this boondoggle?   I'd be a great judge.

[Janet]

It's organized by the European Museum Forum under the auspices of the Council of Europe. 

[Janet]

The awards event has started now, but just looking through the list of candidates it seems very hard to see how Güímar could - or even should - win!

Perikles and I are admitted museum geeks, and there are loads on that list we could happily go to, and some we would in fact really like to go to! Güímar wouldn't actually be in our top 10, even if we hadn't been there!

The Serbian bread museum I could happily leave, though ... and a few others, like the Boris Yeltsin museum, and the Estonian Health Care Museum ...

The list of candidates is HERE ... just click on the blue "EMYA 2017 nominees" tab on the left of the page.

[Nova]

I'd rule out the same ones as you plus all the art and sports museums.  I could be tempted by the gingerbread    and you can definitely count me in for everything that contains words like "castle", "fortress", "mine", "archaeology" or "Viking"!

As for Güímar, it's a pretty location and the pyramids themselves are interesting for the first minute or so, but all the "history" and "educational" stuff is bollocks.

[Perikles]

As for Güímar, it's a pretty location and the pyramids themselves are interesting for the first minute or so, but all the "history" and "educational" stuff is bollocks.

It's a complete and utter con trick, and tacky at that. There are about 40 contenders which sound more interesting, and some of them might be of genuine historical interest.

[Janet]

The Ethnographic Museum of Geneva is European Museum of the Year 2017