Call for Entry for UK’s largest arts prize
1/9/03

The submission process for The Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries 2004 opens today, 1 September 2003. Now in its second year, the £100,000 prize is awarded annually to one museum or gallery, large or small, in the UK, for the most innovative and inspiring idea – whether it is an exhibition, visual arts project, community project or new building – developed during 2003.

The chair of this year’s judging panel is Loyd Grossman, one of the most prominent supporters of museums and galleries in the country, and the current chairman of the Campaign for Museums. He is a Commissioner of English Heritage, Chairman of the Blue Plaques Panel, Chairman of the 24 Hour Museum and a member of the board of Resource, as well as being a keen supporter of many charities. His fellow judges will be announced later this year.

The Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries is open to all registered museums and galleries in the UK. Applicants must have opened, redeveloped, or launched a new project or innovative programme of activity that has come to fruition in the calendar year to 31 December 2003.

The closing date for entries is 31 October. Application forms and more information are also available at www.thegulbenkianprize.org.uk The shortlist of twelve will be announced in January 2004, followed by the announcement of the four finalists in March 2004. The winner will be announced during Museums and Galleries Month in May.

Last year’s winner was the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law at Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice. In addition to a cheque for £100,000, the museum holds for one year the Gulbenkian Prize bowl in enamelled silver, commissioned from the artist Vladimir Böhm.

Notes to editors:

• The Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries is administered by The Museum Prize, a charitable company created in 2001 by representatives of National Heritage, the Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund and the Campaign for Museums. These organisations have agreed to put aside award schemes they formerly ran (including the Museum of the Year) and lend their support to this new prize.

The Museum Prize is chaired by Lady Cobham. Trustees of the Museum Prize include representatives of all four founding organisations.

• The Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries is funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation – the grant-giving organisation with a long-term reputation for pioneering innovative projects in the arts, social welfare and education – which has guaranteed the prize money for a five-year period.

The Gulbenkian Prize is also supported by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, and Sir Christopher Ondaatje, who is passionately interested in raising awareness of the range and quality of museums and galleries in Britain.

• The Foundation’s founder, Calouste Gulbenkian, was one of the most distinguished private collectors in the world. The Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon is well-known and loaned several major pieces of Lalique jewellery to the V & A’s highly acclaimed Art Nouveau exhibition in 2000 and simultaneously mounted a major exhibition of its treasures at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

• The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is supporting the Gulbenkian Prize by guaranteeing prize money of £100,000 a year for the first five years; it is also providing some of the funding for administration.

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