Much to our delight, Orgelkids has been awarded a fine European recognition. Our project has been voted: Religious Heritage Innovator of the Year 2022! This award was presented for the first time this year by the organisation Future for Religious Heritage (FRH), a European project to promote heritage conservation.
"The Church Music Network (Church Music Network) was selected by the Jury as the Religious Heritage Innovator of the Year for its project Orgelkids. This initiative brings children in contact with organ pipes in a very appealing way: with an organ consisting of 128 wooden parts, which the children have to assemble by themselves. Once built this wooden organ is able to produce music. The unique methodology of Orgelkids was born in 2009 in the Netherlands but has become a global movement present in more than 20 countries."
The prize was launched on 9 May 2022 with the aim of celebrating excellence and highlighting best practices in the protection, enhancement and promotion of European religious heritage. The first edition is dedicated to the theme of sustainability, one of the five pillars of the European Commission’s Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage.
The five selected projects illustrate the different facets of sustainability and show that innovation does not have to be digital. FRH hopes that these outstanding examples will serve as inspiration for the cultural sector and demonstrate the efforts of heritage organisations to ensure a more sustainable future for cultural religious heritage.
Award ceremony
The Religious Heritage Innovator of the Year award ceremony took place in Lund, Sweden, on 21 April 2023 during the FRH biennial conference “European Sustainable Religious Heritage“.
