LONDON, UK.- The dust and damp of the coalface, the stench of a herring curing factory, the sounds of the steam age and the roar of the fastest car in the world are all part of the museum experience of the four Gulbenkian finalists, announced on Tuesday 22nd March.

Britain’s industrial heritage and economic regeneration are the dominating themes for this year’s Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year, the UK’s largest single arts prize. All are superb examples of museums listening to and working with their local communities. In every case, there is genuine local involvement and remarkable collaboration. The list demonstrates that museum-making is no longer a one-sided process but that great, modern museums are created when curators engage with their audiences.

Chair of the judges, Sir Richard Sykes, says, “In telling the stories of working people up and down the land, the Gulbenkian finalists have helped us understand and take pride in our own histories. Museums that tell these stories well have created a new audience of museum-goers and have turned the stereotype of an exclusive, quiet and intimidating experience on its head.”

The four finalists are: Big Pit, National Mining Museum of Wales, Blaenafon – the £7 million redevelopment of a former colliery where 1300 people once worked forms a key part of the industrial history of Wales. Now part of a World Heritage Site, it offers visitors the chance to descend 300 feet to the depths of the mine and experience something of the reality of the miners’ daily work both above and below the ground.

Coventry Transport Museum – the culmination of a £7.5 million redevelopment that houses the largest British road transport collection in the world. The museum has become the critical link between the city’s past and its future, helping to change people’s perceptions of not just the museum but Coventry itself.

Time and Tide, Museum of Great Yarmouth Life, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk – Located in a Victorian herring curing factory (a site nominated by local residents), the success of this new £4.7 million museum, set in one of the most socially deprived boroughs in the country, demonstrates what can be achieved through genuine consultation and the application of its findings.

Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon, Co Durham – this new £11m railway museum celebrates Shildon's history as one of the world's oldest railway towns and is the first national museum in the north east of England. As well as providing public access to 70 vehicles from the national collection, many of which were formerly inaccessible, the new museum is a centre for community activity and training, and a key element in the economic regeneration of Shildon.

The Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year is, at £100,000, the biggest single arts prize in the UK and is funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It is given annually to one museum or gallery, large or small, anywhere in the UK. The four finalists were drawn from a shortlist of ten that included Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Art Gallery in North Uist, Compton Verney in Warwickshire, the National Trust’s Back to Backs in Birmingham and the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon.

All four projects have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund; Liz Forgan, Chairman of HLF, comments,

“What interests me particularly about these finalists is that the common thread running through it is the UK's industrial heritage. The Heritage Lottery Fund has always recognised the important role that our industrial past has played for local communities as well as its ability to attract volunteers and visitors. I'm extremely pleased that HLF has helped fund all four of these innovative museums and I wish each of them the best of luck for the final decision."

The winner will be announced during Museums and Galleries Month on Thursday May 26th at the Royal Institution of British Architects.

The judges for the 2005 Gulbenkian Prize are: Sir Richard Sykes, Rector, Imperial College London (Chair); Joan Bakewell CBE, broadcaster and writer; Sir Neil Chalmers, Warden, Wadham College, Oxford and former Director of the Natural History Museum; Michael Day, Chief Executive, Historic Royal Palaces; Sokari Douglas Camp, sculptor
Victoria Hislop, journalist and novelist; Dr Elizabeth Mackenzie, Vice-Chairman, British Association of Friends of Museums.

Last year’s winner was the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh for its dramatic Landform by Charles Jencks – part sculpture, part garden, part land-art. The winner of the inaugural Gulbenkian Prize in 2003 was The National Centre for Citizenship and the Law housed in the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham.