Falmouth Art Gallery is celebrating success at the first Cornwall Heritage Awards having been highly commended in three categories.

The town council-run gallery won praise in the Innovation Award category, the Cornish Heritage Award and the Audience Initiative Award..

The gallery was commended for its new volunteering system ‘Love Falmouth, Volunteer with Us’ using the online Museummakers portal; its Artists Afloat, exhibition which explored Tuke and Hemy’s works painted aboard their floating art studios; and the FOMO Artists Book Fair which brought new audiences into the gallery.

Not only did the gallery receive the three accolades, they were also presented with a cash prize of £200 to help support any work or projects they wish to develop. This money has been granted by Heritage Lottery Fund.

Henrietta Boex, director of Falmouth Cultural Services, said: “We are delighted to have been highly commended in three categories at the Cornwall Heritage Awards. There are so many wonderful projects happening in Cornwall’s museums and it is encouraging to see all of these achievements being recognised and celebrated."

In their first year, the Cornwall Heritage Awards have been developed to commend museums and heritage organisations’ achievements, celebrate what makes them so special and give those unsung heroes their deserved moment in the spotlight.

The awards have been organised by South West Museum Development in collaboration with Cornwall Museums Partnership, and were made possible by investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Cornwall Museum development officer, Bryony Robins, said: “There are more than 70 museums and heritage organisations in Cornwall, each offering something unique and special and providing fantastic services for their communities and achieving high standards.

“Recognising the excellence within these diverse organisations, we believe there is a lot we can learn from each other and have organised the Cornwall Heritage Awards to reward the wonderful work they do, and to share their achievements.

"We have been utterly delighted with the quality of the applications and nominations we received for this year’s awards and are already looking forward to discovering more examples of brilliant work next year.”