Arts year puts city gallery in frame for top award
Museum of Year accolade could make it a hat trick for Yorkshire and confirm City of Culture success
IT ATTRACTED plaudits during Hull’s City of Culture year, breaking its record for visitor numbers and hosting the famous Turner Prize.
And now the Ferens Art Gallery – which attracted global publicity with its commission for Spencer Tunick’s Sea of Hull in 2016 – is in the running for the largest museum prize in the world, burnishing Yorkshire’s growing reputation for the arts.
If it succeeds in winning the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, it will make it a hat-trick for Yorkshire.
Last year, the Hepworth Wakefield art gallery in West Yorkshire scooped the prestigious award and Yorkshire Sculpture Park claimed the same prize in 2014.
The Ferens is the only attraction in the North of England to be shortlisted this year, up against the likes of the Tate St Ives, which re-opened last October following a £20m revamp of its galleries and the addition of an elegant new extension.
Another contender is one of the newest museums in the UK – London’s Postal Museum which has seen 75,000 visitors delivered to its doors since opening six months ago.
The shortlist for the annual award, which celebrates innovation and exceptional achievement in museums and galleries across the UK, was announced by Art Fund’s director Stephen Deuchar on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row show.
The Ferens received more than 519,000 visitors in 2017 – an increase of 309 per cent compared to 2014 – and it has been hailed as the most successful year of the gallery’s 90-year history.
Since re-opening last January after a £5.2m renovation, the gallery has hosted an array of critically acclaimed exhibitions including the world’s most prestigious contemporary art award, the Turner Prize.
It was the second most visited Turner Prize exhibition outside of London with more than 116,0000 visits.
This year’s winner, Lubaina Himid – the oldest artist to win at 63 – was announced at a glittering awards ceremony in Hull in December. Other exhibitions included Skin – developed and curated by the gallery team – which featured works by Spencer Tunick, Ron Mueck and Lucian Freud, attracting 176,443 visitors. There was also the 50th Open Exhibition, works by Francis Bacon and a Rembrandt masterpiece on loan from The Royal Collection Trust.
Simon Green, the director of cultural services at Hull Culture and Leisure, said: “We are delighted and indeed honoured to have been selected as a finalist for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018.
“To be in the running to win this accolade highlights the success of 2017, a truly transformational year for the city and gallery.
“It also recognises the hard work of everyone, our fantastic staff and volunteers, the Friends of the Ferens and Futures Ferens and the many visitors we welcomed over the year. I would like to thank each and every one of our loyal visitors, who have continued to support the gallery over the years.”
The museum award is worth £100,000 to the winner who will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the V&A Museum on July 5.
The other shortlisted museums will receive £10,000 each.