Six-strong shortlist for Museum of the Year
25 April 2015
From the section Entertainment & Arts
Last year’s winner was the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield
Six UK museums are competing for the title of Museum of the Year 2015.
London’s recently renovated Imperial War Museum, Manchester’s Whitworth art gallery and Belfast’s The MAC are among those vying for the £100,000 prize.
The Tower of London, Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Stamford Military Hospital at Dunham Massey complete the list.
The winner will be announced at the Tate Modern on 1 July. It was won last year by the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
“This is, by any measure, an exciting and diverse shortlist, showing great heights of creativity and ambition,” said Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, which has sponsored the prize since 2008.
“Despite a difficult environment of funding cuts, UK museums continue to be inventive, surprising and exhilarating.”
The Museum Prize Trust was set up in 2001 to reward the finest museums and galleries across the UK, and encourage greater visitor numbers.
Below is a brief synopsis of this year’s contenders:
Dunham Massey, Altrincham (National Trust)
A Georgian country house in Cheshire, Dunham Massey has been home to the Booth and Grey families for some 350 years. In 2014, the Sanctuary from the Trenches exhibition faithfully recreated the Stamford Military Hospital as it had been in 1917-19, using artefacts and furniture from the house’s own archive. Working in partnership with Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, actors were brought in to tell real stories of wartime experiences at the hospital. The acclaimed exhibition subsequently extended its run to November 2015.
Imperial War Museum, London
To mark the the centenary of the outbreak of World War One in 2014, the Imperial War Museum brought together letters, diaries, objects …read more
Source:: BBC Entertainment
