Judges Announced for The Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries 2006

15/11/05

The judging panel for the fourth Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries is announced today. Chaired by Professor Lord Winston – scientist and broadcaster – the panel represents a wide range of artistic, scientific and academic interests and museum experience.

It comprises:

• 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, Chairman, British Association of Friends of Museums
• Joanna Moorhead, journalist and author
• Dan Snow, historian and broadcaster.

The Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries , t he largest single arts prize in the UK, is a £100,000 award given annually to one museum or gallery, large or small, anywhere in the UK. The prize aims to recognise and stimulate originality, imagination and excellence in museums and galleries in the UK, and increase public appreciation and enjoyment of them. It recognises and rewards the most original new development of the previous calendar year in a museum or gallery. More details are available at www.thegulbenkianprize.org.uk

Robert Winston comments:
'I feel really privileged to chair the judging panel of the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries this year. The prize celebrates the stunning innovations that are happening in our museums and galleries, really imaginative work which is respected internationally and which adds so much to British cultural life.'

The longlist of 10 museums and galleries will be announced on February 9th 2006, and the four shortlisted museums will be announced in mid-March. The judges will announce the winner of The Gulbenkian Prize at an awards ceremony during Museums and Galleries Month at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London on May 25th, 2006.

The Judges

Professor Lord Robert Winston, Chair of Judges
Robert Winston is Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, London University, and Director of NHS Research and Development for Hammersmith Hospital, one of the UK’s leading medical research centres. He is also Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University. As a peer he takes the Government Whip (Lord Winston of Hammersmith since 1995) and speaks regularly in the House of Lords on education, science, medicine and the arts. He was the recent Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology and is a board member of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

Robert Winston is regular BBC presenter. Series include The Human Body (three BAFTAs and a Peabody award), Child of our Time, Threads of Life and Human Instinct. He recently presented The Human Mind on BBC 1, and has also written the accompanying book, which is out now in paperback from Transworld. His science book for children, What Makes Me Me was awarded this year’s Junior Aventis prize. His next project for the BBC is Story Of God, a history of God and religion.

Ekow Eshun
Ekow Eshun is a writer, journalist and broadcaster and has recently been appointed artistic director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. He grew up in England and Ghana and studied politics and history at the London School of Economics. At 28 he became the youngest ever editor of Arena Magazine and was named by The Evening Standard as one of Britain’s most talented people under the age of 30. In 2000 Eshun was awarded, alongside Jon Snow, the Christian Aid Lifestyle Award at The One World Broadcasting Trust’s Media Awards for the documentary Living on the Line made for Channel 4.

He makes regular appearances on BBC’s Newsnight Review, Daily Politics, and BBC Radio’s Front Row as well as writing for a range of publications. His debut book, Black Gold of the Sun, charted a search for his roots in Ghana and was published earlier this year by Penguin.

Diane Lees
Diane Lees is the Director of the V&A Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green and chairs the V&A’s UK Steering Group. Beginning as an historic buildings researcher and moving into exhibitions, education and interpretation, she has worked on some of the most exciting projects in the country, including the rescue and relocation of a hat block manufacturers workshop in central Manchester and the recovery and display of the Mary Rose ship in Portsmouth Harbour.

She is a trustee of the Story Museum in Oxford, a trustee of Discover in East London and Vice Chair of the Association of Independent Museums, and has recently retired as the Institutional Vice President of the Museums Association.

Dr Elizabeth Mackenzie
For many years Elizabeth Mackenzie was a Consultant Cytopathologist in Bristol, and Secretary and finally President of the British Society for Clinical Cytology. Since retiring from full-time work she has been appointed Assessor for Cytopathology to all BUPA hospitals.

Her interest in museums and galleries has been lifelong; she was a founder member and Chairman of the Friends of Bristol City Museums and Art Galleries, and was elected Chairman of the British Association of Friends of Museums (BAFM) in 1998. She is a member of the Museums & Galleries Month Working Group and in 2003 was invited to become a member of the Museums Association Governing Bodies Forum.

Joanna Moorhead
Joanna Moorhead is a journalist and author.  She writes mostly for The Guardian, where for the last four years she has written a regular series on museums and art galleries suitable for families.  She is also a contributor to the Independent, the Independent on Sunday and the Observer, and she writes for magazines including Junior and Easy Living.  She has specialised for several years in writing about parenting, and her books include a history of childbirth since the foundation of the NHS.

Dan Snow
After studying history at Balliol College, Oxford, Dan was asked by the BBC to co present the 60 th anniversary programme of the Battle of El Alamein in November 2002. Straight away the BBC asked for another eight programmes on great battles of British history. This series Battlefield Britain was transmitted in summer 2004 and another series on 20th century world battles is in production for next summer. In between filming battles Dan has worked with BBC special events to commemorate occasions such as Trafalgar and VE/J day, and is also working on a programme about land ownership in Britain.

Notes to editors:

• Photographs are available. Robert Winston and the judges may be available for interview. Please contact Colman Getty
• The Gulbenkian Prize for Museum 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. 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 whose headquarters are based in Lisbon – where the Gulbenkian Museum is recognised as one of the world's best small museums. The UK Branch of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has been a pioneering funder and promoter of the arts, social welfare and education in the UK for the past 50 years, playing an active role in encouraging artists and arts organisations, including museums, to find original and inventive ways of developing their practice. The UK Branch is responsible for grant aid in the UK and Republic of Ireland and runs funding programmes in arts, social welfare, education and Anglo-Portuguese cultural relations.
• The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is supporting The Gulbenkian Prize by guaranteeing prize money of £100,000 a year over five years; it is also providing most of the funding for administration.
• The Prize is also supported by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council under Renaissance, the ground-breaking programme to transform England’s museums.
• In addition to a cheque for £100,000, the winning museum holds for one year the Gulbenkian Prize bowl in enamelled silver, commissioned by the artist Vladimir Böhm.

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