The Art Fund has announced five shortlisted museums for the 2018 Museum of the Year prize. The finalists are: Brooklands Museum, Weybridge (the site of pre-Second World War motor sport racing circuit, which recently underwent a major redevelopment to house a collection of racing and classic cars, motorcycles, bicycles and other vehicles); Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (after a £5.2 million refurbishment of the galleries and a rehang of the collection in 2017, as well as hosting the Turner Prize for the first time, the gallery saw its visitor figures triple to over 500,000); Glasgow Women’s Library (the UK’s only accredited museum dedicated to women’s history whose collection is entirely donated has also commissioned artists to create new work in response to the existing collection); The Postal Museum, London (originally an archive for the Royal Mail that recently transformed into a museum which opened six months ago, the museum now includes two interactive exhibition galleries, a dedicated learning and discovery centre and Mail Rail, a ‘subterranean train ride that follows London’s 100 year-old underground postal delivery network’); Tate St Ives (reopened in October 2017 after a £20 million refurbishment of its galleries and the addition of a new extension).
The 2018 jury, chaired by Stephen Deuchar, are: Ian Blatchford, director of the Science Museum Group; Rebecca Jones, BBC arts correspondent; Melanie Manchot, artist and Monisha Shah, independent media consultant and Art Fund trustee.
The winner of the award will be announced on 5 July at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and will receive £100,000, while the four shortlisted museums will receive £10,000.
2 May 2018
