Beamish Living Museum Wins Art Fund Museum of the Year for Immersive Storytelling

County Durham’s Beamish Museum has taken home the prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year Award, winning the £120,000 prize for its joyous, immersive storytelling and deep community roots.

Celebrating its 55th year, Beamish is no ordinary museum—it’s a sprawling 350-acre open-air experience that transports visitors through northeast England’s Georgian, Edwardian, and mid-20th-century eras. Costumed staff and volunteers recreate everyday life with painstaking detail, making history palpable and alive.

Judges praised Beamish for its remarkable attention to detail and the passion of its team, calling it a “jewel in the crown of the north-east.” The museum welcomed over 838,000 visitors in 2024 and continues to innovate through projects like “Remaking Beamish,” which engaged more than 32,000 community members to create 31 new exhibits—including a recreated 1950s town.

Beamish’s educational outreach is equally impressive, serving 40,000 schoolchildren yearly and winning multiple awards for visitor experience and welcome.

As comedian and judge Phil Wang put it, Beamish offered “one of the most fun days I’ve had in years,” a sentiment echoed by Terry Deary, author of Horrible Histories, who credits Beamish with vividly bringing the past to life for generations of children.

The award underscores Beamish’s role not just as a museum, but as a living celebration of local heritage and community pride, showing how museums can connect past and present in meaningful ways.

Among four other finalists—Cardiff’s Chapter, Warwickshire’s Compton Verney, Belfast’s Golden Thread Gallery, and Perth Museum—the win positions Beamish as a model for museums everywhere striving to be relevant, engaging, and deeply connected to their communities.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy lauded the museum’s achievement, highlighting its impact on showcasing northeast England’s rich history to the world.

Beamish proves that when museums go beyond displays and become immersive experiences shaped by and for their communities, history isn’t just preserved—it’s lived.

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