The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

FEATURE: Ulster Museum up for prestigious prize

Following the Ulster Museum’s £17.2 million refurbishment, it has been nominated for the prestigious Art Fund Prize. This could be worth £100,000 to the museum as well as being a “huge accomplishment”. The public are being urged to vote for the museum to win on the Art Fund website. The Ulster Museum is currently in first place with 25.5% of the popular vote, but is closely followed by Blists Hill Victorian Town, near Birmingham on 21.9%. It is also up against institutions such as the Natural History Museum, London, and the Great North Museum, Newcastle.

BY BEN FINCH

Judges have been visiting museums on the longlist and will soon be making the decision for the shortlist, taking into account the public vote. Crimewatch presenter Kirsty Young is a member of the panel. Unable to visit with the other members of the judging panel, she visited the Ulster Museum on April 14. These visits are said to have gone very well, and the judges were “suitably impressed”. Gillian McLean, from the Ulster Museum, has said that they need to keep up the momentum in keeping visitors coming to hold on to first place.

Jim McGreevy of National Museums NI said, “The Art Fund Prize of £100,000 is a most prestigious accolade and to win it would be a huge accomplishment for the Ulster Museum and indeed, for Northern Ireland.”

Previous winners of the Art Fund prize include the Wedgewood Museum and The Lightbox Museum and Gallery.

The refurbished museum contains new exhibitions on Irish and natural history as well as a poignant and balanced look at The Troubles. There is also an excellent series of art and fashion galleries on the upper levels.

To vote for the Ulster Museum in the Art Fund Prize visit www.artfundprize.org.uk/2010/vote. Voting closes on 7 May with the shortlist being announced at the end of May.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 3:33 am and is filed under Arts + Ents, Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.