The UK’s much-loved outdoor museum Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) has been awarded the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year Award. The £100,000 award was presented by film director Sam Mendes during a ceremony at the National Gallery in London last night.
“We are so surprised and honoured to win this major award,” said Peter Murray, YSP’s founding and executive director. “It’s extremely important to have the validation of our peers.” Highlights this year included a Yinka Shonibare exhibition, as well as the display of a new work by Ai Weiwei.
The winner was selected by a panel chaired by the Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar, and comprising Sally Bacon, director of the Clore Duffield Foundation; Michael Craig-Martin RA, artist; Wim Pijbes director of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; and Anna Somers Cocks, chief executive of The Art Newspaper.
The YSP beats five other contenders: the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, East Sussex, the Hayward Gallery, London, the Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, and Tate Britain, London.