Ghost Ships Highly Commended at Museums + Heritage Awards
Ghost Ships, a powerful dance-theatre production that reimagined 400 years of Dockyard history, has been Highly Commended in the Community Engagement Project of the Year category at the 23rd annual Museums + Heritage Awards.
The ceremony, held last night (Thursday 15 May 2025) at Hilton Park Lane in London, celebrates the absolute best in the world of museums, galleries, and cultural and heritage visitor attractions.
Created by Medway’s award-winning Icon Theatre in partnership with ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company, Amina Khayyam Dance Company and supported by The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Ghost Ships brought together professional artists, and a large community cast to deliver a bold and imaginative retelling of dockyard stories.
Built around accessibility and participation, the live, large-scale production blended Hip Hop, traditional Kathak, spoken word, projection and original music to explore Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, the stories of female sailors, immigration and the impact of the Dockyard’s 1984 closure on local communities.
Staged over four sold-out nights in a purpose-built auditorium inside the Historic Dockyard’s iconic No. 5 Covered Slip, the show brought together over 150 community performers and professional dancers, many from underrepresented groups including ethnically diverse, d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse individuals. The result was a rich, honest and inclusive performance that reflected the community it represented and the space it inhabited.
Anna Preedy, Director of the Museums + Heritage Awards, said: “What tonight reminds me, more than ever, is that collaboration and inclusivity are not just buzzwords. They’re the foundation of everything that’s good in this sector. The best projects we’ve seen this year don’t just serve audiences; they co-create with them. They challenge the status quo. They invite everyone in.”
Receiving recognition in such a competitive field highlights the strength and value of Ghost Ships as more than just a performance, it was a collective act of storytelling that brought history, people and place together in a unique way.
