LIVERPOOL.- The International Slavery Museum has reached the semi-finals of The National Lottery Awards 2009 in the Best Heritage Project category.
The museum is the only project in Liverpool and the North West in this category through to the semi-finals and is competing against nine other projects for the chance to win the award, decided by a public vote.
The awards are an annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery funded project, recognising the difference that those projects have made to people, places and communities all across the UK.
Since it opened in August 2007, the International Slavery Museum has set out to be a campaigning museum, exploring historical and contemporary aspects of slavery and addressing the many legacies of a trade that still has a profound impact today.
The museum is an international hub for resources on human rights issues, both past and present, and actively campaigns against racism and discrimination.
Built with the help of Lottery funding, it has slavery-related collections from around the world, as well as exhibitions focusing on current issues such as contemporary forms of slavery and sex-trade trafficking.
The museum’s community partnership scheme works with families, young people, refugees and asylum seekers, older people and Black and minority ethnic communities.
School visits are popular and the museum is developing an additional education resource centre containing materials for research on family and local history, and for international and scholarly projects.
Richard Benjamin, head of the International Slavery Museum said:
"We're delighted to have reached the semi-final of The National Lottery Awards. Lottery funding has been crucial in helping us establish this remarkable new museum, which deals with a globally important subject. We're really hoping the public gets behind us and votes!”
Voting is now open until midday on Friday 10 July. Votes can be made online by visiting the National Lottery Good Causes website:
http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/
