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An adventurously designed museum that houses Roman treasures and a new exhibition by contemporary artist Grayson Perry; the world’s greatest collection of preserved medical specimens graphically demonstrating a catalogue of diseases; a new underground environmentally sustainable gallery at a beautifully landscaped outdoor art gallery; and one of Britain’s most important historic ships make up the short list for the 2006 Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries.
The Gulbenkian Prize is the UK’s biggest single arts prize at £100,000 given annually to one museum or gallery anywhere in the UK, regardless of its size or budget. The short list was chosen from a long list of ten that included the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, Wales; Concorde at the Museum of Flight in Edinburgh; and the new Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.
The short list of four is as follows:
- Brunel’s ss Great Britain, Bristol – The ship superbly preserved by a £11.3 million project is short-listed as it celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great British engineer. In a real rescue story, the ship was towed back from the Falkland Islands to its dry dock in Bristol where its condition started to deteriorate dramatically. Now resting on a giant dehumidification system beneath a glass ‘sea’, Brunel’s resplendent vessel was “re-launched” in July 2005 and brings the Victorian maritime world to life though objects as small as the captain’s gold ring to the soaring mainstay and accessible crow’s nest.
- The Collection: Art & Archaeology in Lincolnshire, Lincoln – This new £12.5 million museum displays fine art and artefacts from Roman, Viking and Medieval eras. The Collection was created after local residents formed an action group to lobby councillors to build a new museum to house over 2 million archaeological objects. The result is a collection of internationally significant treasures covering over 250,000 years of history in Lincolnshire, including a 3x3m Roman mosaic found at the bottom of the museum’s lift shaft.
- The Hunterian Museum, London – A £3.1 million project completely renewing the permanent galleries of the oldest and most important medical collection in the world. At the heart of the museum is the collection of 18th century surgeon John Hunter, the pioneer of scientific surgery. With collections that span 200 years of medicine, natural history and the arts, The Hunterian is a sometimes controversial revelation of anatomical practice.
- Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, Yorkshire – The creation of The Underground Gallery, a new space for temporary exhibitions, costing £2.75 million. The gallery, was built beneath the sloping lawns of the 18th century Bothy Garden in order to protect the landscaped park above. Natural light comes from a glazed concourse and it is an example of how a contemporary eco-friendly building can blend into its historic surroundings. The gallery has extended the range of media the YSP can show, which now includes works on paper, light installations and video artworks.
Professor Lord Winston, chair of the 2006 judges, says:
"The panel have had a wonderful time visiting ten outstanding museums on the long list. Selecting only four for the short list was hard, but those chosen all show innovation, variety and excitement, and each is devoted to a special area of importance but with wide interest. This remarkable short list shows that the museum world in Britain is truly vibrant and alive. It has been a privilege for the judges to see the enthusiasm and pleasure that each of these museums generates amongst its visitors.."
The 2006 judging panel comprises:
- Lord Robert Winston, esteemed scientist and broadcaster as Chair
- Michael Day, Chief Executive, Historic Royal Palaces
- Ekow Eshun, writer, journalist and broadcaster and artistic director of the ICA
- Diane Lees, director of the V&A Museum of Childhood
- Dr Elizabeth Mackenzie, Vice-Chair, British Association of Friends of Museums
- Joanna Moorhead, journalist and author
- Dan Snow, historian and broadcaster.
Dr Elizabeth Mackenzie, as a trustee of the ss Great Britain, has now stood down as a judge. She took no part in the judges’ long-listing or short-listing discussions concerning ss Great Britain.
The Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries 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 other museums on the longlist were the Cambridge & County Folk Museum, the Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms, Dorchester Abbey Museum, The Concorde Experience at the Museum of Flight, the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea and the Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre.
Of the four to be short-listed, The Collection, The Hunterian Museum and Brunel’s SS Great Britain have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, comments,
“The Gulbenkian Prize celebrates excellence and innovation in museums across the UK - this year the Heritage Lottery Fund is extremely proud to have funded three out of the four Gulbenkian finalists. This is an extremely diverse group of museums, spanning from maritime heritage to medical history. Each one is a worthy and fascinating nominee and I wish them all luck for the final decision.”
The winner will be announced during Museums and Galleries Month on Thursday May 25th at the Royal Institution of British Architects.
Last year’s winner was Big Pit: National Mining Museum of Wales in Blaenafon, a preserved coal mine where visitors can descend 300 feet underground to experience the working conditions that generations of miners endured daily. The 2004 winner was the landscape sculpture Landform by Charles Jencks at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The inaugural prize was awarded to the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law at Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice in 2003 for the education programme it ran with schools, young offenders and the local community.
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www.thegulbenkianprize.org.uk |
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