Announcing the 2020 MAGNA Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2020 Museums and Galleries National Awards. 

2020 heralds the tenth year of the Museums and Galleries National Awards. The MAGNAs intend to encourage the continuous improvement and development of Australian museums and galleries, inspire and recognise best practice and innovation in the collecting sector and enhance the profile of museums and galleries in local and wider communities. Entries to the awards come from the smallest community museums to the largest national institutions in the areas of exhibition, learning and engagement, research and Indigenous projects.

AMaGA is grateful to our generous sponsors Panasonic, who have been sponsoring the MAGNAs since 2017.

The MAGNAs were announced at an online event on 28 October 2020. The awards event was hosted by AMaGA Councilor Craig Middleton and proceded a keynote address from MCA Director Elizabeth-Ann Macgregor.

You can watch the awards event online now

View the Winners here

The National Winner is selected from a shortlist of all the winning entries. This overall winner generally demonstates extraordinary and innovative approaches to traditional museum practices. The 2020 National Winner is Tiati Wangkanthi Kumangka (Truth-Telling Together) from the Bay Discovery Centre in Glenelg, South Australia. 

Comments by the national winner judges are:

• Wonderful drive and execution with long term commitment by Council, plus support from state institutions and all with the Kaurna people – a great model
• Tiati is a great story – a small museum, run by a local council which has embraced the Roadmap and done a fantastic job, including training the staff.
• Brave, uses wonderful archival material and objects, and is clearly community driven.
• It is modest in budget but big in ambition and execution. It is a role model for others. As one judge says, it goes further than many large institutions…
• The story is told in such an open and honest way. It has a lesson for us all.

View the wonderful acceptance presentation from the Holdfast Bay community:

MAGNA 2020 National Winner - Bay Discovery Centre from AMaGA on Vimeo.