Last year’s Tom Paine Festival, run by Diss Museum, has been nominated in the category of Best Project on a Limited Budget.

The awards, open to museums all over the country and attracting hundreds of entries, will be presented at The Church House, Westminster on 12 May 2010.

In its category Diss is up against the National Maritime Museum, Coventry Transport Museum, Bexhill Museum and the Salt Museum at Northwich, Cheshire.

In all 10 categories there are only two museums nominated from Norfolk or Suffolk, Diss and the Museum of East Anglian Life at Stowmarket.

The festival commemorated the bi-centenary of the death of Thomas Paine, who worked as a staymaker in Cock ( Denmark ) Street in the 1760s.

He went on to write the three best-selling works of the 18th century, including Rights of Man.

Opened by comedian Mark Steel, the festival featured talks, tours, concerts, dance, exhibitions, 18th century food, re-enactments, a debate and film.

Awards For All provided £6,625 in funding for the project which attracted nearly 2,000 people and made £2,300 for the museum.

Manager Basil Abbott said, ‘It was a lot of work but national recognition like this makes it worthwhile.’