‘Internationally significant’: Pitt Rivers Museum awarded Partnership of the Year 2025
At the global Museum & Heritage Awards 2025 the Pitt Rivers Museum yesterday won Partnership of the Year for the Maasai Living Cultures Project.
The annual Museums & Heritage Awards celebrate the best in the world of museums, galleries plus cultural heritage visitor attractions, and the award win signals the scale of the Pitt Rivers Museum’s influence on the global cultural stage.
The Maasai Living Cultures Project is a collaborative project between representatives of the Kenyan and Tanzanian Maasai community and the Pitt Rivers Museum, aimed at building trust and addressing concerns about the portrayal of Maasai culture in museums. It aims to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration between the Maasai community and UK museums and to build relationships based on respect, trust and deeper understanding.
The process was started in partnership with InsightShare, a community development organisation working with Indigenous people around the world to address key issues through Participatory Video. Since its origins in 2017 the project has also led to the establishment of the Pan-African Living Cultures Alliance (PALCA), a regional network enabling more communities to document their knowledge systems, cultural practices, crafts, languages, and traditional technologies. Other UK museums have joined the project since 2020.
On announcing the win, judges commented:
‘Brave, sensitive, and internationally significant, this partnership sets a new standard for genuine collaboration. Through exceptional dialogue and deep mutual respect, it has delivered outcomes with impact far beyond the project itself — offering vital lessons for the sector at a pivotal moment in museum practice.’
The success follows a cross-GLAM win in last year’s Museums & Heritage Awards, with the volunteer-led MultakaOxford project across the Pitt Rivers and History of Science Museum scooping the Community Engagement Programme of the Year Award. Together the two awards demonstrate the continuation of sector-leading activity. In each year the competition has been particularly strong.
Separately, the Maasai Living Culture Project was also yesterday recognised in Oxford University’s 2025 Vice-Chancellor Awards with the Making a Difference Globally Award.
Pictured from left to right: Marina de Alarcón, Jessica Frankopan, Beth Joynson, Laura Van Broekhoven and Purity Naisiamoi alongside compere Ella Al-Shamahi. Photo by Hayley Bray
Explore and learn more about the Maasai Living Cultures Project from here.
