News
Friday, 05 March 2010
Vote for the Ashmolean Museum to win the Art Fund Prize 2010
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is one of eleven institutions long-listed for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize, the UK’s largest single arts prize. The long list has been selected by a panel of Judges chaired this year by broadcaster Kirsty Young. Traditionally the long list comprises ten, but for the 2010 Prize eleven institutions have been nominated, attesting to the high quality and volume of applications received.
The Ashmolean Museum is one of the great university museums of the world that extends and enhances public access to the University of Oxford’s renowned collections of art and archaeology and is nominated for an ambitious redevelopment. With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the sensitively executed £61 million redevelopment, designed by award-winning Rick Mather Architects, has extended the Grade 1 listed building to provide 39 new galleries, an education centre, rooftop restaurant, conservation studios, study rooms and stores.
Of the nomination, Christopher Brown, Director of The Ashmolean said: “To be long-listed for the Art Fund Prize is a great honour for us. From the outset, our ambition has been to create not just an improved and expanded version of Britain’s oldest public museum, but something significantly different in kind: a new way of showcasing the Ashmolean’s remarkable collections, for the benefit of the widest possible audience.”
The £100,000 prize is awarded to the museum or gallery for a project completed in the last year, that the Judges deem demonstrates the most originality, imagination and excellence. The Prize, which has been sponsored by the UK’s leading independent art charity, The Art Fund, for three years, aims to increase public appreciation and enjoyment of the UK’s museums and galleries.
To vote for the Ashmolean, comment or for more information about the Prize go to the website.
