Tate St Ives wins the 2018 Museum of the Year

Art Fund awards the Museum of the Year prize annually to one outstanding museum, and last night this year’s winner was announced in a ceremony at the Victoria & Albert Museum to award a £100,000 cash prize.

The nominees were: Brooklands Museum, Weybridge; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; Glasgow Women’s Library; The Postal Museum, London; and Tate St Ives. The winner is Tate St Ives.

Of the win, Stephen Deuchar, Art Fund director and chair of the judges, says: ‘Tate St Ives tells the story of the artists who have lived and worked in Cornwall in an international context. The new extension to the gallery is deeply intelligent and breathtakingly beautiful, providing the perfect stage for a curatorial programme that is at once adventurous, inclusive and provocative. The judges admired an architect and gallery team who devoted some 12 years to this transformational change, consulting with the local community all the way.’

The winning museum receives £100,000, while the nominees each receive £10,000, and the prize is judged per the museum’s achievements in the preceding year. This year’s jury was chaired by Stephen Deuchar, and comprised: Ian Blatchford, director of the Science Museum Group; Rebecca Jones, BBC arts correspondent; Melanie Manchot, artist; and Monisha Shah, independent media consultant and Art Fund trustee. Among the artists in attendance were Grayson Perry, Gavin Turk, Gillian Wearing, Chantal Joffe and Lawrence Lek.

Winners over the past seven years have been: the Hepworth Wakefield (2017); V&A (2016); the Whitworth (2015); Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2014); William Morris Gallery (2013); Royal Albert Memorial Museum (2012); and the British Museum (2011).

Winner and nominees can be seen below.