The award ceremony for the world’s best museum, presented by the European Museum Academy (EMA) and the Association of Children’s Museums (Hands On! International), took place on 23 March in the Italian city of Bologna.

Following its evaluation, the jury of ten academics selected 9 countries as the best in the world. The Istanbul Toy Museum succeeded in bringing Türkiye among the world’s most successful museums working on children, such as Frida&Graz Children’s Museum from Austria, the Labyrinth Children’s Museum Berlin from Germany, the Museum of Childhood Stories in London from England and the Jamtli Museum from Sweden. The Istanbul Toy Museum also stood out as the only toy museum in the final, to which the world’s best were invited. At the award ceremony, Sunay Akın said:”We have also taken the awareness we started with the Istanbul Toy Museum to Antalya and Gaziantep. We have encouraged the local governments in these cities, with their interest in children, to found toy museums. It will be an honour for us to see you in our country at the meetings (Toyco) to be held in these cities in November, and for you to witness at first hand the importance Türkiye gives to museology and to the world of children. We do not see museology as four walls. After the earthquake in Van, in the east of our country, twenty lorries of toys were delivered to the region through the campaign our museum organised to heal the pain of the children there. For a future full of peace and love, all we need is our children’s dreams.”

In the award final, where the grand prize went to the Tropen Museum in the Netherlands, the first children’s museum founded in Europe, it was notable that the only toy museum was the Istanbul Toy Museum. At the award ceremony held at the Bologna History Museum, the finalists received their certificates from Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg.

In 2011, too, the Istanbul Toy Museum represented our country in the competition organised by the European Museum Forum (EMF) without separate categories, and succeeded in becoming one of the finalist museums.