Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025
Applications open from 28 November 2024 to 27 January 2025.
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Art Fund Museum of the Year is the world’s biggest museum prize. It champions what museums do, encourages more people to visit, and gets to the heart of what makes a great museum. The prize recognises and celebrates outstanding work and projects across UK museums and provides a platform to encourage audiences to engage with museums far and wide.
Every year an independent judging panel will shortlist five exceptional organisations and decide one outstanding winner to take home the £120,000 prize. The remaining four finalists will each receive £15,000.
All shortlisted museums also receive the support of Art Fund throughout the campaign, which includes national press coverage opportunities; bespoke marketing support and other exciting collaborations and partnerships to help you reach more audiences.
What are we looking for in 2025?
2025: The people who make you.
For the 2025 prize, in addition to looking at the overall achievements of your organisation, we are keen to hear about the wide range of people that make your achievements possible and bring your museum or gallery to life. How are you and your teams engaging and working alongside communities, families and younger visitors, artists and creatives, or those harder-to-reach visitors? What makes your approach impactful, inclusive and innovative?
We want to hear how you are doing this through the stories you and your teams tell across your exhibitions or displays, how you make your programme and buildings welcoming, and the role that your teams play in making great things happen.
We are interested in what you are doing in terms of specific projects, as well as what you are doing as a whole – how this makes you unique, and the best at what you do.
Who can apply
Key deadlines
How to apply
Your application
Read the guidance
Download the Guidance for applicants which explains more about the application process and gives you guidance on filling out the application form.
Get in touch
If you haven’t found what you need in the guidance document, get in touch with Emma Mills (emills@artfund.org) to set up a call to discuss further.
Submit your application
This year we will be accepting all application forms and supporting documents via email. We will not be using the online portal due to changes in our system.
You can send your completed application form to programmes@artfund.org (with emills@artfund.org in the cc line). Please ensure the application form remains as a Word file (not a PDF) as this will enable us to process the information.
You must be registered as a professional user with a My Art Fund account. If you already have a My Art Fund account, but are not registered as a professional user, you can add your professional details when logged in.
After you've applied
Acknowledgement of application
The prize project manager will be in touch to let you know the outcome of your application and the next steps.