Major academic prize for Ann

A Nenagh woman who is working with Tipperary County Council on the development of its planned new tourism office at Banba Square in Nenagh has won a major award.

Ann Scroope, the owner of the company Scroope Design, has been awarded the prestigious Professor Eilean Hooper-Greenhill prize from the University of Leicester.

The prize was for an outstanding research project relating to museum learning and communication. The prize giving ceremony last month also marked the completion by Ms Scroope of two years study for a Master's Degree in Heritage and Interpretation.

The achievement marks a highpoint in a long career in planning and designing some of the most successful museum exhibitions in Ireland and abroad.

After graduating from the National College of Art and Design, Ms Scroope spent six years working in Australia and the UK. In 1995 she returned to Dublin and founded Scroope Design. She now lives in Courtmacsherry in Co Cork.

She has created the permanent exhibitions for the National Museum of Country Life, Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Ireland's Historic Science Centre in Birr, the Pearse Museum, the National Herbarium and the National Arboretum.

Many of her projects have received awards from the Gulbenkian Institute and the Interpret Britain and Ireland Heritage Foundation. After 30 years in operation she decided to set her design work into an academic context by researching the relationships between design, interpretation and visitor engagement.

The heritage and interpretation course in which she excelled in the University of Leicester is unique. Students attend from Australia, America, China, Canada, Hong Kong, Europe, New Zealand.

For her project Ms Scroope undertook indepth studies of Ireland's heritage within this international context.

Clearly thrilled at her achievement, she told this newspaper: “The prize is like winning gold at the Olympics. I hope to continue my research through a PhD later this year focusing on the Irish context.”

And she revealed that she is currently working with Tipperary County Council on the new tourism office for Nenagh and with the Dublin Port Company on the interpretation of port heritage.