The prize in its current form is part of a 50-year history of celebrating and rewarding the best UK museums have to offer. The first ‘Art Fund Museum of the Year’ was awarded in 2013 to the William Morris Gallery in London. Its forerunner was the Prize for Museums and Galleries, administered by the Museum Prize Trust and supported by Art Fund between 2008-2012. Prior to this, it was sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from 2003-2007, when it was known as the ‘Gulbenkian Museum Prize’.