Art Fund Museum of the Year Award 2018

Celebrating innovation and exceptional achievement in museums and galleries across the UK, Art Fund Museum of the Year awards £100,000 to one outstanding winner and £10,000 to each other finalist to support future activity.

With past winners including The Hepworth Wakefield (2017), the V&A (2016) and the Whitworth (2015), the prize has done much to draw national and international attention to the remarkable creativity and accomplishments of UK museums. On the unveiling of the 2017 winner earlier this year, the Hepworth’s director Simon Wallis praised the ‘unflagging passion’ of his team, and Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar called the gallery ‘a powerful force of energy from the moment it opened in 2011… it’s the museum everyone would dream of having on their doorstep’. 

On the judging panel for the 2018 prize are Ian Blatchford, director of the Science Museum Group; BBC arts correspondent Rebecca Jones; artist Melanie Manchot; independent media consultant and Art Fund trustee Monisha Shah, and Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar as chair. They will consider applications from all eligible entrants across the UK before the shortlist of finalist museums is announced in late April 2018. The award ceremony will take place on 5 July 2018 at the V&A, London.

Applications for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018 are open now and will close at 12 noon on 6 February 2018. 

Claude Monet, 'The Museum at Le Havre', 1873 © The National Gallery