Britain’s largest arts prize is to get even bigger after the Art Fund announced a significant rise in total prize money for its museum of the year award.
The Art Fund director, Stephen Deuchar, said on Monday that in addition to the first prize of £100,000, each of the four runners-up from the shortlist would receive £10,000. That marks a 40% rise from £100,000 to £140,000.
Launching the 2017 prize, Deuchar said: “In these uncertain times museums are a trusted public realm, whose collections and programmes can help people make sense of the world we live in, and where we may be going.
“Whatever the challenges of the moment, museums and galleries across the UK are forces of innovation, driven by some of the best cultural leaders anywhere.”
The prize is the largest arts award in the UK and the biggest of its kind in the world. It will be judged next year by a panel consisting of the director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, the BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley, the artist Richard Deacon and the former deputy mayor of London Munira Mirza, who was in charge of arts policy during Boris Johnson’s administration.
Past winners have included major institutions – the British Museum in 2011 and the V&A this year – and comparative minnows – the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London, in 2013 and the Lightbox in Woking, Surrey, in 2008.
The size of the prize makes a significant difference to the museums. The V&A said it was putting the cash towards making its collections more widely available outside London.
Tim Reeve, the museum’s acting director, said: “This is a real opportunity to work even more closely with colleagues across the cultural sector, to share knowledge and expertise, and to connect our objects with more communities in more dynamic ways.”
The 2017 award, previously called the Gulbenkian prize, will once more be partnered in with the BBC, which will commission programmes about the shortlisted museums. The list will be announced in April and the winner revealed at a ceremony at the British Museum on 5 July.
