Museum Heritage Awards

Comedians as a rule dislike corporate work mainly because you are stuck in a room with folks who do not wish to laugh at inappropriate material in front of their peers/bosses/HR. It drastically reduces the available guns in your arsenal.

Awards ceremonies are usually worse as the audience still need to stay positive and egaged for what for most will be an evening of disappointment. Not everyone can win. So keeping interest and everyone upbeat after losing their category can be tricky for a compere.

However, having worked in this industry, putting on shows in museums, interviewing curators and conservators for radio and even working as in an archivist team myself, doing this awards show is an utter breeze.

A massive congratulations to everyone who won and those nominated.

My personal highlight came near the top - the winner of best innovation was won by a company who make vacuum sealed display cases for delicate objects. They gave a lovely acceptance speech which I confessed I was worried about. Never a good sign when someone takes to the mic who has just been rewarded for sucking all the oxygen out of a room.

Seriously though, it is great that awards like this happen. Museums and Heritage locations and exhibitions shape so much of our cultural identity. Objects matter, they link us to the past, and that past shapes our future.