Živa Award Recipients
Regional Museum Goriški muzej
Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Museum – Teodora and Izydor Gulgowski Kashubian Ethnographic Park in Wdzydze
Wdzydze, Poland
Jury justification:
This heritage site is located in a country renowned for numerous open-air museums of folk culture, most distinguished by remarkable professional excellence. This awarded heritage site presents aspects of the material and social life of the countryside, reflecting differences in wealth, occupation, and ethnicity, through activities, workshops, and educational programmes, with storytelling achieved through original photographs and personal narratives of the people who lived in the exhibited houses. Alongside English and Polish, texts are written in Kashubian, as this institution is dedicated to the cultural identity of a Slavic ethnic group in northern Poland. An introductory exhibition presents the symbolic repertoire of this identity while inviting reflection on its construction and transformation over the past century. Discussions on the significance of heritage, museums, and ethnology are explored in a playful yet profound way, positioning this site as a model for engaging with vernacular architectural heritage and contemporary discourses on community, identity, and institutional practice.
Municipal Public Institution “Museums of Kotor”
Kotor, Montenegro
Jury justification:
This municipal institution comprises five museums in various locations around the Bay of Kotor, including the Old Town of Kotor, as well as Perast and Risan. It is a socially committed institution, deeply embedded in the life of the local community through its numerous creative activities. The institution’s remit includes the effective protection, preservation, research and promotion of the cultural heritage of these places, encompassing historic buildings such as the Romanesque churches in Kotor Old Town, which currently house the Lapidarium and exhibitions, as well as significant archaeological finds such as the Roman mosaics in Risan. The museums also hold and display a diverse array of archaeological, historical and ethnographic collections, as well as art and archives. These collections reveal the area’s long and turbulent history, which has shaped the cultural identity of its inhabitants and the historical memory of past civilisations for centuries. Each of these museums plays its own part, telling its own unique and captivating story.
Vysočina Open Air Museum
Hlinsko, Czech Republic
Special Recognition for the Interpretation of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Preserving and protecting cultural heritage is one of the museum’s core objectives. This is particularly important when society is losing its living memory of the past, including everyday life and work within communities, towns and broader regions. This is where museums and communities of engaged people come into play: people who have decided not only to document this memory before it is completely lost, but also to keep it alive. They provide new impetus so that the memory is not only preserved, but lives on. This helps society to build upon traditions and create a new environment that will, over time, bring fresh momentum to the development of the urban area or wider region – not only culturally, but also economically.
For this reason, the jury has decided to recognise the ongoing efforts of the Vysočina Open Air Museum in preserving the memory of Hlinsko and the Vysočina region, awarding the museum the ŽIVA Special Recognition for the Interpretation of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Planet Sarajevo
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Special Recognition for Community Engagement
Planet Sarajevo is an exhibition and multimedia experience of what is considered Sarajevo’s Golden Age – from 1945 to 1991. It is a showcase and celebration of the city’s cultural and innovative power, connecting works of music, architecture, industry, design – you name it – with the catalytic role of the Sarajevo ’84 Winter Olympics.
The underlying, secondary goal is to show – in particular to the youth of Sarajevo – that it is worth staying, growing businesses and developing Sarajevo. To be proud and keep the flame burning.
Besides the driving force of two people, a couple, there was and is an extraordinary involvement of citizens, companies, local government and public institutions. Thousands of hours of film and audio were donated, many thousands of historical documents digitalised, thousands of objects donated, and hundreds of people interviewed.
This resulted in a community-based Sarajevo information system.
MUZA Cultural Heritage Management Institute
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Special Recognition for Outstanding Exhibits
The institution’s exhibitions stand out for their ability to transform complex historical, financial and social themes into engaging and accessible visitor experiences. Through strong curatorial concepts, carefully structured narratives, innovative exhibition design and interactive elements, the institution connects historical research with contemporary questions and encourages visitors to explore familiar subjects from new perspectives.
Particularly noteworthy is the thoughtful integration of scenography, graphic interventions, multimedia and multisensory elements into the exhibition narrative. Archival materials, historical objects and participatory elements are combined with accessible interpretation, making complex topics understandable and engaging to diverse audiences.
The institution’s strength lies in the coherence between the curatorial vision, storytelling, educational objectives and visitor experience. This combination of innovative interpretation, educational depth, thoughtful design and strong visitor engagement makes MUZA an outstanding example of contemporary museum practice and merits special recognition for excellence in exhibition-making.
Museum for Change
Odesa, Ukraine
Jury citation:
The Museum for Change is a non-governmental organisation that has played a vital and constructive role in preserving and protecting Ukrainian cultural heritage against devastation since the start of the war.
The organisation’s current focus is on supporting Ukrainian museums by evacuating endangered collections, establishing new storage facilities, digitising collections and keeping records of destroyed monuments and lost cultural assets. By providing access to resources and acting as a funding intermediary, the organisation is helping to sustain the activities of Ukrainian museums and ensure a degree of institutional continuity within the constraints of these troubled times.
The Živa Jury 2026 concluded that this deserves to be acknowledged with this particular title.
Slovenian Cultural Action
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jury citation:
For over seven decades, this organisation has brought together and connected Slovene immigrants in Argentina and other neighbouring South American regions. Slovenian Cultural Action deserves recognition and praise for its members’ commitment to preserving, promoting and raising awareness of Slovene cultural identity, language, and the Slovene and Slavic cultural heritage around the world. Since its inception, the organisation has provided a wide range of high-quality programmes featuring cultural events from the fields of science, literature, theology, philosophy, music, society, theatre and art, which have been organised and created mainly by its members. It has also published a vast number of books. For the past decade, Slovenian Cultural Action has been presented annually in Slovenia.
Urban Jarnik Slovene Ethnographic Institute
Klagenfurt, Austria
Jury citation:
This renowned scientific institution is committed to studying the past and present life, cultural history, language, and tangible and intangible heritage of the Slovenes living in the bilingual border region of Carinthia between Slovenia and Austria. Since its foundation in 1994, the Urban Jarnik Slovene Ethnographic Institute has made a major contribution to safeguarding the distinctive features of Carinthia’s intangible language heritage, such as local dialect place and house names, as well as other accomplishments including collecting, documenting, conducting field research and publishing.
Ukrainian Museum of Canada
Saskatoon, Canada
Jury citation:
For exceptional achievements in preserving Ukrainian cultural heritage, identity and art in Canada, through the preservation and presentation of an outstanding ethnographic museum collection of almost 20.000 museum objects, books, and archival units. The oldest Ukrainian museum in North America (founded in 1936 in Saskatoon) is a museum dedicated to celebrating Ukrainian identity, cultural resilience, and immigrant history, as well as fostering transparent intercultural dialogue with the local and broader community and the global diaspora.
Serbian Ecclesiastical Museum in Szentendre
Szentendre, Hungary
Jury citation:
The Serbian Ecclesiastical Museum in Szentendre is a unique museum institution and the only museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church outside Serbia. Founded in the 1960s, it preserves and displays the rich heritage of Serbian religious art from the 18th to the 20th century. Housed in the historic Preparandija building, restored and adapted to contemporary museological standards, the museum combines the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage with exhibitions, educational programmes and cultural events. At the same time, it is an active part of Szentendre’s cultural life, fostering dialogue among the Serbian community, the local environment and wider audiences, and contributing to the preservation and promotion of Slavic cultural heritage.
Lojze Bratuž Cultural Centre
Gorizia, Italy
Jury citation:
For more than seventy years, the organisation has served Slovenes in the Gorizia region. Thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of its staff, various organisations have found their headquarters in the reconstructed building, including educational societies, choirs, an academic society, drama groups, a sports club, the Scouts and many more. Today, the Lojze Bratuž Cultural Centre is renowned as an important cultural, educational and sporting hub, not only in the Gorizia area, but also in the wider cultural region.
SMO Narratives and landscapes museum
San Pietro al Natisone, Italy
Jury citation:
For its contemporary innovative approach to collecting and presenting the rich cultural heritage of the Slovenian minority along the Italian-Slovenian border. The presentation of the research and collection process regarding personal narratives and storytelling encourages active interaction with the audience through multimedia technology tools, digital archives, and artistic installations to allow visitors to experience the living cross-border landscape.
