The Art Fund Launch Nationwide Search for Museum of the Year 2015

The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year launches its competition for 2015. The search for the next top UK museum or gallery begins this week, after director of the Art Fund and chair of the judging panel, Stephen Deuchar, revealed the international jury line-up of artist Michael Landy; design critic Alice Rawsthorn; Fiammetta Rocco, arts editor of The Economist , and Axel Rüger, director of Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. This year’s arts institutions will be competing for recognition as one of the UK’s most outstanding venues, through the demonstration of their bold artistic vision and engaging visitors’ programme.

The Art Fund Prize seeks to champion the role museums and galleries play in today’s fluctuating society, and explores how they encourage members of the public to interact with their collections and temporary displays. Celebrating the work of institutions from across the UK, the prize is the largest arts award in Britain and the biggest museum prize in the world. With a £100,000 monetary prize awarded to a single winner, the competition offers museums and galleries the opportunity to showcase their ground-breaking and boundary-pushing contributions to culture in the UK. Previous prize winners include the William Morris Gallery and British Museum in London, Belfast’s Ultster Museum, the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, Staffordshire’s Wedgwood Museum, and recently the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield.

Submissions are now open for the 2015 prize. Following the announcement of shortlisted museums on Thursday 23 April 2015, renowned British documentary photographer and photo-journalist, Martin Parr, will create a special portfolio of images of the selected venues. Parr will also be a judge of the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year national photography competition, which invites members of the public to submit their own photographs of the shortlisted museums. The overall prize winner will be revealed at an award’s ceremony at Tate Modern‘s Turbine Hall on 1 July 2015.

The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year will continue to partner with VocalEyes, a charity that provides access to arts and heritage for blind and partially sighted people.

For more information on The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year, visit www.artfund.org/prize or follow @artfund.

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Credits
1. Yorkshire Sculpture Park 2014. Courtesy of The Art Fund.