Brunel Museum staff and volunteers have received ‘Cultural Enterprise Awards’ for their hard work.
Event Coordinator Alijca Sobczak, from Rotherhithe, won the Rising Star Award and volunteer Gill Howard, from Wapping, became the first-ever recipient of the Jill Fenwick Award for Outstanding Contribution at the Gala Dinner Awards Ceremony on March 10.
The Cultural Enterprises Awards celebrate success and creativity in the arts, heritage and cultural sectors.
The Cultural Enterprises Conference described how Alicia “transformed venue hire a the Brunel Museum” with her “uncanny ability to anticipate client needs.”
The judges said: “Alicja’s dedication, professionalism, team spirit, understanding of the museum’s mission and values, and immense commercial nous clearly make her a rising star in our sector.”
The Cultural Enterprises Conference said, without Gill Howard, the Brunel Museum would “still be selling outdated guidebooks and there wouldn’t be an online shop”.
Nowadays, the museum’s retail offer accounts for roughly 10 per cent of its overall income, “all down to Gill’s extraordinary passion, dedication and creativity,” the conference said.
Presenting Gill with her award, judges said: “Every organisation needs a Gill Howard!”
Based at the north end of Rotherhithe Street, the Brunel Museum celebrates the story of the building of the Thames Tunnel – the first tunnel under a river anywhere in the world.
The awards ceremony was held at the Royal Hall in Harrogate.
- READ MORE: Prostitutes, corpses and ‘vampire shopkeepers’ – the sordid history of Brunel’s tunnel – published in 2015