art fund prize 2010

The Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries 2010 The Ashmolean, Oxford The Ashmolean Facade

© The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Courtesy The Ashmolean

ect was launched and a rescue bid that enabled a £1.7 million restora- tion to begin. The old pottery reopened to the public in 2008 and the new studios were completed in February 2009, providing work- space for a new generation of potters and a living legacy to Bernard Leach's life and work. The old pottery workshop has been sensitively preserved and the famous Japanese climbing kiln, the first of its kind to be built in the west, is now a scheduled monument.

Design team: GHK Architects.

National Army Museum: Conflicts of Interest

The National Army Museum is nominated for Conflicts of Interest, a new gallery exploring the impact of four decades of conflict on British soldiers and civilians worldwide.

Design team: support from designers Met Studio and interactive agency GR/DD.

Natural History Museum: Darwin Centre

The Natural History Museum is nominated for the Darwin Centre, a £78 million landmark life sciences complex, and the most significant expansion at the Museum since it moved to South Kensington in 1881. The Darwin Centre allows vis- itors to explore world-class science in action in a new public space with its giant concrete Cocoon, which houses 17 million insect and three million plant specimens, plus labora- tories where visitors can witness

scientists at work.

Design team: C F Møller Architects. The Royal Institution for Great Britain, for Science in the Making

The Royal Institution of Great Britain in nominated for Science in the Making. The important scientific collection of the 200-year old Royal Institution has been brought to life in this new exhibition as part of a major £22 million refurbishment of the Grade I listed building, support- ing the Institution’s mission of making science accessible to all. The major renovation and reconfigura- tion project has seen an increase of 40% in the spaces accessible to the public. The historic displays reflect- ing the themes of Experimentation, People and Communication, are spread across three floors of the building, with the highlight of the exhibition, Faraday's original mag- netic laboratory as it was in the 1850s. The varied interpretation in- cludes film, interactive exhibits and a palm- top eGuide.

Design team: Terry Farrell and Partners, Architects; Event: Exhibition and Design.

The Towner, Eastbourne Borough Council

Towner, the contemporary art muse- um for the South East, is the £8.6 million new home of Eastbourne’s Towner Art Gallery, which opened to the public in April 2009. The dra- matic new building provides Towner with a range of purpose built spaces that enable it to operate as a region- al centre of excellence for the visual

arts, allowing major exhibitions of contemporary and historical art to be presented alongside changing displays of the important Towner Collection. With its collection of mainly 20th century British Art, and an emerging collection of interna- tional contemporary art, Towner is at the forefront of gallery learning and research in the UK, and offers a wide range of public programmes.

Design team:

Rick Mather Architects.

Ulster Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland

Opening up the Ulster Museum has been a comprehensive project representing the first substantial development of the Museum in almost 40 years and making an im- portant contribution to the cultural rejuvenation of Northern Ireland. The three year project, at a cost of £17.2 million, has radically reconfig- ured the Museum’s listed building, offering a series of new galleries in- cluding interactive Learning Zones, a stunning new Applied Art Gallery and state-of-the-art, 3 storey-high Window on Our World display. The Ulster Museum re-opened on 22 October 2009 with a landmark retrospective exhibition by world- renowned abstract artist, Sean Scully. Since its redevelopment, the Ulster Museum has become North- ern Ireland’s busiest visitor attraction.

Design team:

Hamilton Architects; Haley Sharpe Designers.

Professor J Steve Jones,

Professor of Genetics, University College London

Sally Osman, Communications

Consultant and Former Director of Communications, BBC

Lars Tharp, Director, The

Foundling Museum and BBC Antiques Roadshow expert

Jonathan Yeo, Artist

The public can vote for their favourite long-listed museum or gallery and tell the Judges why they should win at: www.artfundprize.org.uk/vote

The judging panel for the Art Find Prize 2010 consists of:

Kirsty Young (Chairman),

Broadcaster

Kathy Gee, Museums and

Heritage Adviser

Professor A C Grayling,

Professor of Philosophy, Birkbeck College, London

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