Game Jam,  a project from Mexico which educates people about conservation through computer games, has won IIC's Keck Award 2022. The winner, the National Coordination for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (CNCPC), receives a £2,500 prize.

You can read full details of the project here, describing the development of games around topics ranging from restoration work needed at the Metropolitan Cathedral following a 2017 earthquake; palaeontology including looking at sites where fossils have been found and how to prevent theft and trafficking; and archaeological heritage.

At our online prizewinner's event on 27 September, judge Sarah Staniforth encouraged everyone to visit the website, where you can play many of the games. She said "I did enjoy playing the games, but hope that my decimation of the pyramids was more a reflection of my poor gaming than my aptitude as a preventive conservator!"

Try out some of the games

KANÁAN KANAN - warn bad visitors not to damage the Temple of the inscriptions.

HA ́XIBALBA - Go to the Underworld and face several deities of the Xibalba, with the central theme of the Restoration of the Mayan mask and Cosmovision.

Road to Conservation - You are a novice restorer in a laboratory for the cleaning and preservation of fossils.

Three runners up

With such a strong field on our shortlist, we also chose three runners up. They are:

Creating a Regional Heritage Centre in Guatemala – CERPA

Guatemala has a rich cultural heritage, but a lack of widespread education about heritage, which is still seen as an exclusive academic field. This situation inspired two young architects, one from Guatemala, one from Tunisia, to initiate a Regional Heritage Centre – ‘CERPA’ to bring cultural and especially conservation learning to a much wider group of people. Read more here.

Representing under-represented heritage: restoring unattended monuments in Nepal

The Kathmandu Valley in Nepal is home to a form of Buddhism practiced by the Newar people, which has produced distinctive structures called chivas or chaityas, which have dotted the landscape since the fifth century BCE. However, many have been under threat from neglect or damage - and it is the crucial work of the Chiva Chaitya Organization (CCO), which has saved this unique cultural heritage. Read more here.

In the Time of Pandemic: The Community Participation of Daily Inspection of Heritage in Changping District, Bejing, China, 2018-2022

Changping District is to the North West of Beijing and covers around 500 square miles and just under 2 million people. A lasting challenge has been to inspect the many historic built heritage sites in the region, and this problem was further compounded by the frequent lockdowns during the Covid 19 pandemic. A new approach, harnessing digital technology and grassroots activism has developed as a solution. Read more here.

A collaborative judging process

Finally, thanks again to the roughly 5,000 people who cast votes for the ten projects on our shortlist. This is the first time we have run a collaborative judging process - with credit given half from the public vote and half from our judging panel. Noticeably, there was broad agreement through these two routes, which helped us pick our winners.

Plus IIC Wellington Congress Poster Prize Winners

We also gave prizes to winners of our IIC Wellington Congress poster competition. The  winner is 'The Perception of Techniques Used for Retouching Wall Paintings in the Netherlands' – Jasmijn Krol and W (Bill) Wei

Our student winner is 'An Epidemiological Approach to the Study and Classification of Cracks in Oil Paintings on Canvas' - Ana María García-Castillo, Celia Krarup Andersen, Mikkel Scharff, Maite Martínez-López, Angel Perles and Laura Fuster-López

Watch the Prizewinning Ceremony