Celebrating 50 Years of SMA

Society for Museum Archaeology Annual Conference 2025 to be held at Museum of Liverpool on 13th and 14th of November 2025

Draft programme is now in progress!

The conference will celebrate the successes of Museum Archaeology over the past 50 years and look forward to the possible challenges and opportunities over the next 50 years.

SMA Annual Awards for Excellence

We are delighted to announce the nominations for the Society’s Annual Awards for Excellence will open on Monday 18^th August 2025.

The SMA awards are not about recognising the biggest, most shiny, or most expensive. The awards celebrate excellent practice, clear impact and people development at whatever level across the full spectrum of our museum world.

In this spirit SMA is proud to dedicate our Engagement and Collaboration in memory of Pieta Greaves (1979 – 2025) who worked with tireless enthusiasm to encourage and enable participation across archaeology.

It’s easy to apply with winners presented with their awards at the SMA conference in Liverpool on 13^th and 14^th November.

Information for making an entry can be found by downloading this document, but here’s a quick overview:

Categories

Exhibition, Display or Interpretation project
Collections based project
Engagement and/or collaboration project. The Pieta Greaves award.

All projects should have been completed, within the UK, during the calendar year to 31^st July 2025. Entries can be for physical and digital projects.

Deadlines

CLOSING DATE for entry is midnight on 30^th September 2025. Winners will be notified on Friday 17^th October and awards will be presented at the SMA conference on 13^th November.

Good luck!

Watch our Conference 2019 videos online!

Keynote:The Telling of Human Stories

Archaeology for the People

Norwich Castle

Liverpool: Re-thinking Slums

Lost Landscapes

BC or not BC?

Presenting Prehistory

Beyond the Bling

Treasure

Graffiti