Winner of Art Fund Prize announced
Exeter's RAMM named Museum of the Year
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery (RAMM) in Exeter, Devon, has won the £100,000 Art Fund Prize.
The local authority museum beat the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh and the Watts Gallery near Guildford, Surrey, to the accolade of Museum of the Year.
RAMM reopened in December following a £24m make-over. The museum was praised by the judges for its “ambition and imagination” and the way it had reinterpreted its display of over a million objects.
Former culture secretary Chris Smith, chairman of the judges, said: “The new museum is quite simply a magical place. The Victorian aspirations to bring the world to Exeter are stunningly realised through some of the most intelligently considered displays on view in any museum in the UK.
“Every exhibit delights with a new surprise, and provokes with a new question, and at a time when local authority museums in particular are in such danger, this brilliant achievement proves how daring, adventurous and important such institutions can be.”
The prize was announced at a ceremony at the British Museum and live on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
The four shortlisted museums were whittled down from a longlist of 10, which included M Shed in Bristol; Turner Contemporary in Margate; Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes; the Holburne Museum in Bath; the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; and Riverside Museum, Glasgow.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Art Fund Prize.
Previous winners are the British Museum, London, for A History of the World (2011); the Ulster Museum, Belfast (2010); the Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent (2009); the Lightbox gallery and museum, Woking (2008); Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2007); Brunel’s SS Great Britain, Bristol (2006); Big Pit: the National Mining Museum of Wales (2005); the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2004); and the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law, Galleries of Justice, Nottingham (2003).
CLORE AWARD FOR LEARNING
Meanwhile, Clore Award for Museum Learning has been jointly awarded to Leicestershire County Council Heritage and Arts Service and Whitworth Art Gallery. Both services received £10,000 in recognition of their approaches to working with young audiences.
Sally Bacon, co-chair of the Clore Award for Museum Learning, said: “The two award recipients are game changers in the field of museum learning.
"Both have identified core young target groups and have worked closely with them to transform their experiences of art and collections.”
Leicestershire County Council Heritage and Arts Service received the award for its Held in the Hands scheme, which centred on a series of sculptural artist commissions for children with special educational needs.
Whitworth Art Gallery’s Manchester Early Years Partnership, which brought together museums and galleries across Manchester to devise imaginative and playful ways to engage early years children, practitioners and parents, saw it receive the award.
The local authority museum beat the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh and the Watts Gallery near Guildford, Surrey, to the accolade of Museum of the Year.
RAMM reopened in December following a £24m make-over. The museum was praised by the judges for its “ambition and imagination” and the way it had reinterpreted its display of over a million objects.
Former culture secretary Chris Smith, chairman of the judges, said: “The new museum is quite simply a magical place. The Victorian aspirations to bring the world to Exeter are stunningly realised through some of the most intelligently considered displays on view in any museum in the UK.
“Every exhibit delights with a new surprise, and provokes with a new question, and at a time when local authority museums in particular are in such danger, this brilliant achievement proves how daring, adventurous and important such institutions can be.”
The prize was announced at a ceremony at the British Museum and live on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
The four shortlisted museums were whittled down from a longlist of 10, which included M Shed in Bristol; Turner Contemporary in Margate; Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes; the Holburne Museum in Bath; the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; and Riverside Museum, Glasgow.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Art Fund Prize.
Previous winners are the British Museum, London, for A History of the World (2011); the Ulster Museum, Belfast (2010); the Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent (2009); the Lightbox gallery and museum, Woking (2008); Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2007); Brunel’s SS Great Britain, Bristol (2006); Big Pit: the National Mining Museum of Wales (2005); the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2004); and the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law, Galleries of Justice, Nottingham (2003).
CLORE AWARD FOR LEARNING
Meanwhile, Clore Award for Museum Learning has been jointly awarded to Leicestershire County Council Heritage and Arts Service and Whitworth Art Gallery. Both services received £10,000 in recognition of their approaches to working with young audiences.
Sally Bacon, co-chair of the Clore Award for Museum Learning, said: “The two award recipients are game changers in the field of museum learning.
"Both have identified core young target groups and have worked closely with them to transform their experiences of art and collections.”
Leicestershire County Council Heritage and Arts Service received the award for its Held in the Hands scheme, which centred on a series of sculptural artist commissions for children with special educational needs.
Whitworth Art Gallery’s Manchester Early Years Partnership, which brought together museums and galleries across Manchester to devise imaginative and playful ways to engage early years children, practitioners and parents, saw it receive the award.