V&A up for world’s richest museum honour
● New Dundee attraction one of five contenders for £100,000 prize
Dundee’s new V&A museum is in the running to win the world’s most lucrative museum prize - less than a year after opening its doors.
The city’s acclaimed waterf r o n t a t t r a c t i o n h a s b e e n named one of five contend - ers for the £100,000 Art Fund Museum of the Year title.
Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, it is the only Scottish attraction in the running for the honour, which is also Britain’s richest cultural award.
More than half a million visitors have flocked to VA Dundee since the building opened in mid-s eptember, while its arrival on the waterfront has helped Dundee become rated one of the world’s “must-visit” destinations in 2019.
V&A Dundee’s rivals for the title include the Royal Navy museum at the decommis - sioned HMS Caroline in Belfast’s “Tita nic Quar ter,” the Nottingham Contemporar y galler y, the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University and the St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff.
Previous winners of the Art Fund’s title include the V&A’S original 19th centur y attract i o n i n L o n d o n , Yo r k s h i r e S c u l p t u r e p a r k , t h e Ta te S t Ives galler y in Cornwall and the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
T h e r e h a s o n l y b e e n o n e previous winner of the award north of the border, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, in Edinburgh, in 2004.
The judges for the Art Fund prize hailed V&A Dundee as “both a striking inter vention and a feat of engineering.”
They added: “B orn from a unique partnership between the V&A, local government, universities, enterprise and communities, the new museu m h a s h e l p e d r e g e n e r a t e the area. It showcases intern a t i o n a l d e s i g n a l o n g s i d e t h e o u t s t a n d i n g a c h i e v e - ments of S cotland in its permanent design galleries and a programme of major exhibitions.”
V&A Dundee director Philip L o n g s a i d : “I t i s a n h o n o u r for everyone who has helped create, launch and run V&A Dundee for the museum to be shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year.
“It recognises achievements in a year when we reached t h e m i l e s t o n e o f e n g a g i n g over 100,000 people some six months b efore op ening the m u s e u m , t r a v e l l e d a c r o s s Scotland to work with young people, and then launched the museum with a thrilling family festival of design and music.
Council leader John Alexander said: “The achievements of V&A Dundee just over six months following its opening are nothing short of remarka b l e . We’r e a t t h e c e n t r e o f unprecedented international attention and we’re all working hard to create more exciting opportunities.”
bferguson@scotsman.com