The first ever Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence have been launched to celebrate best practice across museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions.

Created by the Museums & Heritage Show in association with Attractions Management magazine, the 10 winning entries spanned the entire industry, rewarding both operators and suppliers.

Overall Contribution by an Individual was presented to Loyd Grossman for his dedication to the world of museums.

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum took the award for Project on a Limited Budget, The Imperial War Museum North won Use of Technology award for the Big Picture and Time Stacks, and Fife Council Museums won the Education Initiative for the 7 Pit Wynd creative arts project.

Other winners included John Csàky Associates for The Deep, Blackpool Tower and Circus for the Blackpool Tower Heritage Collection and Antenna Audio and Tate Modern for the new multimedia tour.

The Action Marketing Team won the Marketing Campaign award for the re-launch of Jorvick Viking Centre, Waddesdon Manor took the award for Alternative Revenue, while The National Railway Museum won the Classic Award. The winner of the Temporary/Touring Exhibition was Ancient Egypt: Digging for Dreams, a project carried out by Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL; Croydon Museum and Heritage Service and Glasgow Cultural Services.

Next year's Museums & Heritage Show will take place in May at Earls Court. Details: Attractions Management February 2003