LONDON.- Art Fund Museum of the Year, the world’s largest museum prize, is a celebration of the UK’s museums and galleries. This year it promises to reflect the resilience and imagination of museums throughout the pandemic.

At this moment of museums re-opening and starting their recovery, the 2021 prize will highlight and reward the extraordinary ways in which museums have, over the past year, served and connected with their communities. It will showcase their spirit and determination, even when most have been forced to close their doors, some for the entire year.

Jenny Waldman, Art Fund director and Art Fund Museum of the Year chair of judges, said, “The pandemic has seen museums, galleries and historic houses face their greatest challenge in living memory. The doors had to close for much of the last year, but so many museums have found imaginative ways to serve their local communities, connect with new audiences and share their collections digitally. It is nothing short of heroic. I would encourage all museums to tell us what has been achieved against the odds, so that we can reward, celebrate and share this incredible work with everyone.”

Art Fund is encouraging applications from any museum, gallery or historic house, whatever their scale, and from wherever they are located in the UK, including those who have been forced to close their physical spaces throughout 2020/21. Applicants will be asked to answer three questions:

• What did you do in the last year that showed imagination and determination?

• How do you think this made a difference?




• How will you build on this in the future?

The 2021 judging panel, chaired by Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, will include: Maria Balshaw, director of Tate and chair of the National Museum Directors’ Council; Katrina Brown, director of The Common Guild and Art Fund trustee; Suhair Khan, strategic projects lead at Google; and artist Thomas J Price.

This year’s winner will receive £100,000 and each of the four other finalists will receive £15,000 – an increase of £5,000 on previous years to give museums additional funds when they are most needed.

The closing date for applications will be 1 June. A shortlist of five museums will be announced in mid-July and the winner revealed in the autumn.

Art Fund Museum of the Year will continue its collaboration with the BBC in 2021, with coverage to be announced in due course.

There are around 2,500 museums in the UK, many of them free, including national museums, local authority museums, university museums, independent museums, historic properties and heritage sites.

Art Fund Museum of the Year complements Art Fund’s charitable programme in support of museums at this time, which comprises its ongoing programme of grant giving, support and partnerships.

In a unique edition of the prize in 2020, Art Fund responded to the unprecedented challenges that all museums faced by sharing the prize money equally between five winners: Aberdeen Art Gallery; Gairloch Museum; Science Museum; South London Gallery; and Towner Eastbourne.