Art Fund Museum
Art Fund, the UK’s national charity for art, today announced the five museums selected as finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024, the world’s largest museum prize.
The shortlisted museums are:
- Craven Museum (Skipton, North Yorkshire) – embedded in Skipton Town Hall cultural hub, the museum covers archaeology, textiles, fine art, literature and social history from pre-history to present day.
- Dundee Contemporary Arts (Dundee) – one of Scotland’s foremost contemporary arts organisations featuring two art galleries, a two-screen cinema, a print studio and award-winning learning programme.
- Manchester Museum (Manchester) – over 130 years old and home to around four and a half million objects from natural sciences and human cultures, Manchester Museum reopened in February 2023 following an extensive renovation.
- National Portrait Gallery (London) – the NPG tells the story of the United Kingdom through six centuries of portraiture, from global icons to local champions, national treasures to unsung heroes. The Gallery reopened in June 2023 following a major three-year transformation project.
- Young V&A – Victoria and Albert Museum (London) – reopening in July 2023, the museum (formerly the V&A Museum of Childhood) was created with and for children and young people, to spark creativity now and for the future, with spaces to imagine, play and design.
Art Fund annually shortlists five outstanding museums for Museum of the Year. The 2024 edition recognises inspiring projects from autumn 2022 through to winter 2023, with audiences and communities at their heart – with a particular focus on community engagement, sustainable ways of working, and demonstration of ambition by reinventing what it means to be ‘the best’ museum for the audiences of today and tomorrow.
The winning museum will be announced at a ceremony at the National Gallery in London on 10 July and will receive £120,000. £15,000 will be given to each of the four other finalists – bringing the total prize money to £180,000.
The 2024 judging panel, chaired by Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, includes: Anupam Ganguli (Finance Director, Historic Royal Palaces), Vick Hope (broadcaster), Tania Kovats (artist) and Sir John Leighton (former Director-General, National Galleries of Scotland). The judges will visit each of the finalists to inform their decision-making, while each museum will make the most of being shortlisted over the summer through events and activities for new and current visitors.
Speaking on behalf of the judges, Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund said:
“The shortlisted museums for this year’s Art Fund Museum of the Year prize are shining examples of the impact museums are making locally and nationally. Each of our finalists truly has something for everyone and all have community at the very heart of their programming. Their commitment to innovative partnerships whilst operating within an extremely challenging funding environment is incredible, and I’m so pleased to see the way they support and centre young people through their work. Across a wide range of size and scale, these organisations are all real leaders in their field. I urge everyone to go and visit these extremely special spaces.”
The prize is funded thanks to the generosity of Art Fund’s members who buy a National Art Pass. Art Pass holders enjoy discounts and benefits at the shortlisted museums and hundreds more across the UK.
Art Fund Museum of the Year continues its collaboration with the BBC in 2024.
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