Art Fund Prize winner announcement
We are pleased to announce that the winner of this year’s Art Fund Prize is the Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent.
This is the second year that we have sponsored this major arts prize, which is open to all accredited museums and galleries in the UK and aims to increase public appreciation and enjoyment of all they have to offer.
The Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries is awarded to the museum or gallery whose project demonstrates the most originality, imagination and excellence.
This year for the first time fans of the short-listed museums voted online in a public poll to have their say about who the winner of the Prize should be.
The Wedgwood Museum also won The People’s Choice which was announced on 18 June 2009, to coincide with the official winner announcement.
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Housed on the historic manufacturing site of Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Limited, the Wedgwood Museum celebrates the art of ceramics at its finest, with visitors able to see not just pots but a range of manuscripts, documentation, correspondence, factory equipment, original models and fine art. |
For more information on The Art Fund Prize, please visit www.artfundprize.org.uk
The three other short-listed museums and galleries competing for the £100,000 prize this year were:
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Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham | |
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Orleans House Gallery has been transformed from a group of decaying buildings into a thriving and inspirational community hub for heritage, arts and learning, with regularly-changing contemporary and historical exhibitions alongside its permanent collection. |
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Ruthin Craft Centre: The Centre for the Applied Arts, Denbighshire | |
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As the most important gallery for contemporary craft in Wales, the stunning new building designed by award-winning architects Sergison Bates hosts contemporary crafts from major collections around the world and at home. |
Ten museums altogether were long-listed for this year's prize. The remaining museums and galleries were:
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The Braid: Arts Centre and Mid-Antrim Museum, Ballymena, Co Antrim | |
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Named after the river that runs through Ballymena and as a tribute to the local flax linen industry, this £20 million new museum, arts centre and exhibition space explores the history of the region from prehistoric times to its more troubled recent history. |
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Outside the Box at the Museum of Reading | |
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The Museum of Reading is entrusting the local community with its precious objects, as more than 20,000 objects from the museum’s collections have been packed into more than 1,500 boxes, loaned out to hundreds of schools, colleges, care homes, libraries, and local community groups. |
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Scotland: A Changing Nation at National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh | |
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Scotland: A Changing Nation explores five major themes affecting life in Scotland from the First World War to the present day, including war, industry, daily life, social change and immigration, and celebrates Scottish achievement. |
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National Trust Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire | |
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This newly rejuvenated museum offers the rare chance for kids big and small to get hands on with its collections in this museum set in the 19th century servants’ wing of 17th century Sudbury Hall. |
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Rotunda - The William Smith Museum of Geology, Scarborough | |
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One of the oldest surviving purpose-built museums in the country, the beautiful 1800s Rotunda building houses exhibits which have rekindled Scarborough’s pride and passion for one of her most significant adoptive sons, William Smith, ‘the father of English geology’. |
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The Sackler Centre for Arts Education at the V&A, London | |
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One of the most innovative museum education spaces in the world, the Centre helps visitors develop practical creative skills inspired by the museum’s many exhibits and practices, including digital media, advertising, fashion and home decoration. |
To celebrate being long-listed for The Art Fund Prize, these museums are offering Art Fund members free entry until the end of June. The V&A is offering members free entry to Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence until 30 June.
