It’s the time of year for award ceremonies, so I’m instigating here the inaugural, annual awards from Steve Slack HQ. 2009 has been a great year for museum visits. Here are my highlights

Museum visit of the year is awarded to SS Great Britain in Bristol for their excellent interpretation and choice of audio guides – visitors can choose whether to listen to the perspective of a first class passenger, someone travelling in steerage or the ship’s cat.

Exhibition of the year goes to the futurist show Rodchenko and Popova at Tate Modern. I’m not always a fan of TM shows, but this one really did it for me, with some excellent pieces being gathered from far and wide for the display. And great exhibition branding too, which really fit with the show’s concept.

Interpretive device of the year goes to the Antwerp Fashion Museum for their exhibition on Belgian handbag design house Delvaux. I particularly liked the display of how to make a handbag, and also some great mock-ups of advertising and promotional material from the last 150 years. I blogged about it here.