As an organizational body that concerns itself with all things museums in the European continent, the European Museum Forum makes it its priority to improve the high standards of museum across the continent. It responds to possible changes, tendencies, and trends that come and go in the museum sector. This makes the Forum one of the most prominent organizations in the museum scene of Europe ever since its establishment in 1977 by Kenneth Hudson. For the record, the Forum is a nonprofit organization so the proceedings from all events involving them go to the development of methods that eventually improve the overall public quality of European museums.
As a way of showing recognition to museums under its supervision, the EMF holds an annual conference event for three days in May. The conference is a prestigious event that all museum professionals can attend to meet and share everything with fellow colleagues and professionals. The European Museum of the Year Award takes place within this conference and so does the Council of Europe Museum Prize. But those two awards are only the main event of the annual conference. There are two more awards that the EMF hands out simultaneously.
The Kenneth Hudson Award is named in recognition of the Forum’s founder. The Award, as a matter of fact, is indeed given to museums capable of living out Hudson’s vision. The Award is not exclusive to museums only but also to individuals, projects, or a group of people, all of who are capable of displaying achievement that is unordinary, bold, and probably somewhat controversial in challenging what the public commonly perceive of museums. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva, Switzerland was among the recipients of the Award. The Stiletto Prize is another award handed out by the EMF. First introduced in 2011, the Prize recognizes museums’ involvement in European continent, voluntary and community-focused.