At a ceremony held in Glasgow at the Riverside Museum (2012 Micheletti Award winner), MUSE - Museo delle Scienze in Trento, Italy was announced as the winner of the 2014 Micheletti Award. The trophy was presented to the museum’s director, Michele Lanzinger. Representing the Luigi Micheletti Foundation was René Capovin. A strong delegation from the European Museum Academy, which was responsible for the selection and assessment of candidates, was also present.

A museum of natural history was founded in the city in 1922, and the new museum reopened in July 2013 in an extensive urban park. Most of the investment was made by local authorities after a concept development phase of about 10 years. The building, by Renzo Piano, simulates the slopes of the surrounding mountain peaks of the Dolomites and is a centre with a further seven external locations. It was built with great attention to ‘green technologies’. With an exhibition space of 5,000 m² covering six floors, visitors experience a tour through the natural history of both the Earth and evolution. The galleries on the various floors are grouped around a vertical corridor of light in the centre of the building, in which a range of exhibits seem to float before the eyes of the observer. Texts are in three languages and digital technology and interactivity play an important part in the presentations. Extensive laboratories enable school pupils and students to engage interactively with the central topics of the museum. Summer schools for students complete the comprehensive educational programme. The comfort of visitors is well catered for, with ample seating, a café/restaurant and a museum shop.

The judges said: “The combination of so many contemporary ideas with established museological approaches makes MUSE a state-of-the-art cultural institution with great innovative potential. The combination of its museum, scientific, research and advisory activities represents a particularly seminal collection of roles for a cultural institution. The participatory element during the planning stage of the museum has been successful in reaching the local, regional and even national population with this new museum concept. Tourism in the area has increased, leading the way for other institutions to establish themselves in the vicinity of the museum, formerly the site of a large Michelin factory.”