Five British museums in Belfast, Cardiff, Perth, Warwickshire and Durham counties can all compete for the world’s largest award given to the museum, saying, “Living with ideas and energy.”
The Art Fund Museum of the Year Award will offer the winner a £120,000 Gamechanging Award, with £15,000 going to each other finalist.
The 2025 nominee list, released on Tuesday, represents museums from all four UK countries. They are home to Beamish in Durham County, Cardiff chapters, Compton Barney in Warwickshire, Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast and Stones in Destiny in Scotland.
Art Fund Director Jenny Waldman said all five are “a stimulating example of the best museums, connecting deeply with local communities, responding to the world around them, living with energy and ideas.”
Beamish, a highly popular outdoor museum called “North Living Museum,” tells the story of the immersive social and industrial history of northeast England in the 1820s, 1900s, 1940s and 1950s.
Visitors travel through the various environments of old trams and buses, experience stories of ordinary life in mines and shops, and are told by staff and volunteers in period costumes.
Over the past year, the museum has completed a project called Remake Beamish, which includes recreation of the town of 1950s, featuring movies, toys, electricity, a record shop and a milk bar.
The Perth Museum, located at the Old Town Hall, tells the story of Perth as Scotland’s first capital. Its highlight is the stone of destiny. Photo: Jane Barlow/PA
The Perth Museum opened in March 2024 after a £27 million renovation of the building, which had been closed since 2005. “Through local lenses, the 10,000 years of Scotland, the UK and world history.”
The charm of that star is the stone of destiny that has been returned to Perthshire for the first time in 700 years. The stone, an ancient symbol of the Scottish monarchy, has been used in the Corner Crown of Westminster since it was considered a war booty by the forces of King Edward I of England in 1296. He was again under the throne due to the coral crown of Charles III.
Since the new museum opened, over 250,000 visitors have gathered within 100 days, including 100,000 people. Guardian Jonathan Jones wrote, giving him a five-star review, “This is a local museum that reinvents the local museum.”
Golden Thread Gallery is a leading contemporary art gallery in Belfast, reopened in August 2024 with a new space, the city’s former gas corporation showroom.
The new venue features two large gallery spaces, a projection room, a visual art research library and an archive, which is the first in Northern Ireland. Artists on display include Charlotte Bosanke, Rob Hilken, Graham Fagen, Susan Hiller and Claire Morgan.
Skip past newsletter promotions
Highlights that get the headlines of the day and email you in person every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising, and content funded by external parties. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. We use Google Recaptcha to protect our website and the application of Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
After the newsletter promotion
Compton Barney is the Grand Georgian Country House Art Gallery, featuring six world-class art collections, with Brown Parkland within 120 acres of capacity.
Last year, they presented a new sculpture park that includes Louise Bourgeois spiders and works by Sarah Lucas, Parminder Cowl, Larry Achanpon and Helen Chadwick.
Compton Barney, which includes the Sculpture Park, is set on a 120-acre site with brown abilities built. Photo: Mark Boulton/Aramie
The Cardiff chapter is a multi-art space that includes galleries, theaters, cinemas, artist studios and community gardens. He is committed to impartial arts programming and recently introduced an artist residency program that offers free studio spaces.
The winners will be announced at the Liverpool Museum on June 26th. The review committee is artists Lana Begum, David Divosa, director of Tate Research and Interpretation, comedian Phil Wang, and Jane Richardson, chief executive of Museum Wales.
Previous winners of the awards ranged from huge to small, such as the V&A, such as the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, East London. Last year’s winner was a young V&A from Bethnal Green in East London.
