The Whitworth wins £100k Museum of the Year prize 2015
Howard Lake | 2 July 2015 | News
The Whitworth in Manchester has won the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year prize for 2015. It beat five other museums to win £100,000, the largest arts prize in the UK and the largest museums prize in the world.
The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year “celebrates the very best museums and galleries, and it acknowledges the creative and innovative ways in which they bring objects and collections to life and engage diverse audiences in conversations about our cultural heritage”.
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In 2014 the gallery was closed so that it could be doubled in size, and redeveloped so that it connected far better with its surrounding park. It has even appointed a ‘cultural park keeper’ to make the most of these open spaces. Even while it was closed it managed to host a series of pop-up events. It re-opened on Valentine’s Day this year.
The redeveloped gallery, founded in 1889 in memory of industrialist Sir Joseph Whitworth, has already been named North West Building of the Year by RIBA North West.
You can watch the announcement;
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22042dO7HBI[/youtube]
Why was it nominated?
The gallery’s website features an explanation as to why it was nominated.
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9DCQSgG1WY[/youtube]
The announcement of the winner was made at Tate Modern in London. Stephen Deuchar, Art Fund director and chair of judges, said:
“The transformation of the Whitworth has been one of the great museum achievements of recent years. It has changed the landscape: it truly feels like a museum of the future”.
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The finalists
The six finalists for the 2015 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year were:
• Dunham Massey (National Trust), Altrincham
• IWM London
• The MAC, Belfast
• Oxford University Museum of Natural History
• HM Tower of London (Historic Royal Palaces)
• The Whitworth, Manchester
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.