Museum of the Year explained

Art Fund Museum of the Year
Sponsor:	Art Fund
Location:	United Kingdom

The Museum of the Year Award, formerly known as the Gulbenkian Prize and the Art Fund Prize, is an annual prize awarded to a museum or gallery in the United Kingdom for a "track record of imagination, innovation and excellence". The award of £100,000 is Britain's biggest single art prize, and the largest single museum arts prize in the world. The prize and is presented to a museum or gallery, large or small, anywhere in the UK, whose entry, in the opinion of the judges, best demonstrates a track record of imagination, innovation and excellence through work mainly undertaken during the previous calendar year.

History

The Museum of the Year was awarded by the British charity National Heritage from 1973 to 2000. In 2001, the Museum Prize Trust was established with the aim of creating a single award to replace this prize and three others awarded by the Museums Association, the Art Fund and the Campaign for Museums. The Gulbenkian Prize, as this was known, was first awarded in 2003. The prize's principal sponsor until 2007 was the Lisbon-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, but since 2008 it has been sponsored by the Art Fund. It adopted its current name in late 2012, and the first award under the new name was given in 2013.

Since 2011 the Clore Award for Museum Learning, worth £10,000 and sponsored by the Clore Duffield Foundation, has been awarded for "quality museum and gallery learning with children and young people (from early years up to the age of 25) in any setting, in or out of school or college". For its first two years this award had a separate shortlist but in 2013 it was awarded to an institution on the Museum of the Year shortlist, which had expanded from four to ten finalists.

List of winners and shortlisted entries

National Heritage Museum of the Year (1973–2000)

Year	Winner
1973		Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, Kendal, Cumbria
1974		National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire
1975		Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Singleton, West Sussex
1976		Gladstone Pottery Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
1977		Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Telford, Shropshire
1978		Erddig Hall, Wrexham
		Museum of London
1979		Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, Saint Peter Port
1980		Natural History Museum, London
1981		Hunday Farm Museum, Stocksfield, Northumberland
1982		Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
1983		Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, County Down
1984		Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, Cheshire
1985		Burrell Collection, Glasgow
1986		Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum, County Durham
1987		Manchester Museum
1988		National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, West Yorkshire
1989		National Portrait Gallery at Bodelwyddan Castle, Denbighshire
1990		Imperial War Museum, London
		Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester
1991		National Railway Museum, York
1992		Manx National Museum, Douglas
1993		Jersey Museum and Art Gallery, St Helier
		Jersey Maritime Museum, St Helier
1994		Tower Museum, Derry, County Londonderry
1995		Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire
1996		Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury
		National Trust exhibition at Uppark, South Harting, West Sussex
1997		Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire
1998		House of Manannan: Manx National Heritage, Peel
		Jersey Maritime Museum, St Helier
1999		River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
2000		British Museum, London

Gulbenkian Prize (2003–2007)

Year	Winner	Shortlisted
2003		National Centre for Citizenship, Galleries of Justice, Nottingham	Collections, Communities and Memories Community Project, Clifton Park Museum, Rotherham, South Yorkshire Darwin Centre Phase One, Natural History Museum, London RRS Discovery, Discovery Point, Dundee
2004		Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh	Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle upon Tyne Pembrokeshire Museum Service Norton Priory Museum, Runcorn, Cheshire
2005		Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenavon, Torfaen	Coventry Transport Museum Time and Tide Museum, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Locomotion: the National Railway Museum at Shildon, County Durham
2006		SS Great Britain, Bristol	Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, London The Collection: Art and Archeology, Lincolnshire Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
2007		Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex	Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Kew Palace, London Weston Park Museum, Sheffield

Art Fund Prize (2008–2012)

Year	Winner	Shortlisted
2008		The Lightbox, Woking, Surrey	Breaking the Chains, British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, Bristol Shetland Museum and Archives, Shetland Wellcome Collection, London
2009		Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire	Centre of New Enlightenment, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, London Ruthin Craft Centre: Centre for the Applied Arts, Denbighshire
2010		Ulster Museum, Belfast	Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford Blists Hill Victorian Town, Telford, Shropshire Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry
2011		A History of the World in 100 Objects, British Museum, London	Polar Museum, University of Cambridge Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Alloway, Ayrshire Roman Baths Museum, Bath, Somerset
2012		Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Devon	The Hepworth Wakefield Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey

Art Fund Museum of the Year (2013–)

Year	Winner	Shortlisted
2013		William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, London	The Hepworth Wakefield, winner of the Clore Award for Learning Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear The Beaney, Canterbury, Kent Dulwich Picture Gallery, London Horniman Museum and Gardens, London Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge Narberth Museum, Pembrokeshire Preston Hall Museum and Park, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham
2014		Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield	Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Ditchling, East Sussex Hayward Gallery, London Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth, Hampshire Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, Norfolk Tate Britain, London
2015		Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester	Dunham Massey Hall, Greater Manchester Imperial War Museum, London The MAC, Belfast Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford Tower of London
2016		Victoria and Albert Museum, London	Arnolfini, Bristol Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Beckenham, London Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh York Art Gallery
2017		The Hepworth Wakefield	Lapworth Museum of Geology, Birmingham National Heritage Centre for Horseracing & Sporting Art, Newmarket, Suffolk Sir John Soane's Museum, London Tate Modern, London
2018		Tate St Ives	Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull Glasgow Women's Library The Postal Museum, London
2019		St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff	HMS Caroline, Belfast Nottingham Contemporary Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford V&A Dundee
2020		Aberdeen Art Gallery	rowspan=5
		Gairloch Museum, Wester Ross
		Science Museum, London
		South London Gallery, Camberwell, London
		Towner Eastbourne
2021		Firstsite, Colchester	Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry Experience Barnsley Thackray Museum of Medicine, Leeds Timespan, Helmsdale
2022		Horniman Museum, London	Museum of Making, Derby People's History Museum, Manchester The Story Museum, Oxford Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham
2023		Burrell Collection, Glasgow	Leighton House, London The MAC, Belfast Natural History Museum, London Scapa Flow Museum, Stromness
2024		Young V&A, London	Craven Museum, Skipton, North Yorkshire Dundee Contemporary Arts Manchester Museum National Portrait Gallery, London

See also

• List of awards for contributions to culture
• European Museum of the Year Award
• Europa Nostra
• The Best in Heritage

External links

• • The Museum Prize Trust