Bath’s Holburne Museum, which reopened last May following a £11.2m refurbishment, has been nominated for the Art Fund Prize 2012, the UK’s museum of the year award.
The prize, the biggest for arts and cultural organisations in the country, rewards excellence and innovation for a project completed or undertaken in the previous year.
The Holburne's new extension, designed by acclaimed architect Eric Parry, has doubled the display space available in the museum. More than 100,000 people visited the museum within six months of reopening.
Museum director Alexander Sturgis said: "The museum has been open for less than a year following our three-year development project, but the welcome back has been extraordinary. We have exceeded our own targets and rewarded the faith that the Heritage Lottery Fund and all our supporters placed in us.
The beautiful contemporary extension has fulfilled our ambition to allow the museum, the building and setting, and our collection to sing. Inspiring displays by Metaphor have allowed the works on show to be accessible on many different levels and transformed the public's enjoyment of our collection with the perfect marriage of old and new."
A shortlist of four museums will be announced on May 14 with the £100,000 cash prize awarded to the winner at a ceremony at the British Museum on June 19. The prize has been awarded since 2003.
Chairman of The Museum Prize Trust Penelope, Viscountess Cobham, said: “It is testament to the extraordinary work that is happening around the country in museums and galleries that the 2012 Art Fund Prize longlist showcases excellence, innovation and audience engagement at all levels.”
Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, added: “This year’s Art Fund Prize longlist truly reveals the creativity and ambition of museums and galleries beyond London.”
The longlist was chosen by a panel of experts chaired by Lord Smith of Finsbury, former Labour MP and
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The other judges are Professor Jim Al-Khalili OBE, theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster; Charlotte Higgins, Guardian journalist and author; Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, author and broadcaster; Sir Mark Jones, Master at St Cross College, Oxford and former V&A director; Rick Mather, architect; and Lisa Milroy, artist and head of graduate painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
Among the museums the Holburne is competing against are M Shed – the museum for Bristol, which opened last yearis and the newly-opened Turner Contemporary in Margate.
