In 2016, Ecsite members were competing for one prize: the Ecsite Strategic Partnership Award, recognising extraordinary collaboration between an Ecsite member and an external partner whose work together enabled them to achieve goals neither of them could have reached by themselves alone.
The prize
The Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards were announced at a ceremony at the Gala Ball of the 2016 Ecsite Annual Conference on 9 June in Graz, Austria. Representatives of the winning and highly commended projects received a trophy from the hands of Jury Chair Sharon Ament.
Representing the winning project, Peter Skogh, Director of Tekniska Museet ran a “provocation workshop” together with artist Håkan Lidbo at the 2016 Ecsite Directors Forum. They invited attendees to transition from STEM to STEAM (where A stands for Arts) and challenged them to creative exercises: coding music with candies, fighting writer’s block thanks to a man versus machine challenge or tackling the planet’s problems through a card game.
Winner: Tekniska museet, Stockholm, Sweden - for the partnership undertaken with artist Håkan Lidbo on the interactive exhibit “Make Music with Your Whole Body”. The exhibit is part of MegaMind, a new exhibition space dedicated to creativity and was co-created with children, taking into account the needs of physically impaired visitors.
The Jury was impressed by the openness of this collaboration, and the evidence of profound learning both on the artist’s and on the science centre’s side. This project struck a chord with the Jury: it is an inspiring example of co-creation for the science engagement community.
Highly commended project: International Centre for Life, Newcastle, United Kingdom - for their partnership built with the Northumbria University. The partnership served as the basis for a continuing programme of activity that reinforced Life’s mission to be the best place in the UK for enthusing and engaging everyone in science, and Northumbria University’s vision as a research based, business focused, and professional university with a global reputation for academic quality. It included (and continues to include) exhibitions, public events, courses, internships, research collaborations...
