Art Fund: Museum of the Year Prize

Open or will open again Archives and artefacts Arts, culture and heritage Built heritage Craft and design Cultural heritage Visual arts and media Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Large (over £60,000) Medium (up to £60,000)

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Overview

Every year an independent judging panel will shortlist five exceptional organisation and decide one lucky winner to take home the £120,000 prize. The remaining four finalists will each receive £15,000.

All shortlisted museums also receive the support of Art Fund throughout the campaign, which includes national press coverage opportunities; bespoke marketing support and other exciting collaborations and partnerships to help you reach more audiences.

What are they looking for in 2025?

2025: The people who make you.

For the 2025 prize, in addition to looking at the overall achievements of your organisation, they are keen to hear about the wide range of people that make your achievements possible and bring your museum or gallery to life. How are you and your teams engaging and working alongside communities, families and younger visitors, artists and creatives, or those harder-to-reach visitors? What makes your approach impactful, inclusive and innovative?

They want to hear how you are doing this through the stories you and your teams tell across your exhibitions or displays, how you make your programme and buildings welcoming, and the role that your teams play in making great things happen.

They are interested in what you are doing in terms of specific projects, as well as what you are doing as a whole – how this makes you unique, and the best at what you do.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for Art Fund Museum of the Year please check you meet the following criteria before starting your application:

Your activity must have taken place from autumn 2023 through to winter 2024/25.
You must be able to demonstrate positive change and impact of the activity.
You must be based in the UK and be either a public museum, gallery, historic house, library or archive which has spaces for the public to visit and experience the visual arts or other object-based collections.
You must be able to demonstrate that you usually operate to best practice standards or have a good track record in delivering high quality public activity.

If you are an organisation that is a visual arts agency or festival, they’d be happy to hear from you providing you can meet the criteria and have a strong visual arts focus.