{"id":17760,"date":"2026-04-20T10:54:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17760\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T10:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:54:06","slug":"two-mighty-london-institutions-are-in-the-final-of-uk-museum-of-the-year-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17760\/","title":{"rendered":"Two mighty London institutions are in the final of UK Museum of the Year 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

As dream jobs go, travelling to museums and galleries across the country to hand-pick the best the nation has to offer is definitely up there. And that\u2019s exactly what the judges do at\u00a0Art Fund Museum of the Year<\/a>.\u00a0Each year, after whittling a long list of applications down to just five national finalists, the judges heading off across the country to seek out the institutions going above and beyond when it comes to the UK art scene.<\/p>\n

Now, the Art Fund has announced its shortlist for the Museum Of The Year award 2026. This year\u2019s edition of the prize will recognise impressive projects hosted by museums between autumn 2024 and winter 2025<\/a>. As well as looking at overall achievements, the judges will be keeping their eyes peeled for unexpected, innovative and forward-thinking practices, celebrating institutions which are \u2018pushing the boundaries of what a museum is or can achieve\u2019, the Art Fund said.<\/p>\n

Excitingly for us Londoners, two of the five shortlisted institutions are in the capital.<\/p>\n

\"Visitors
\nPhorograph: David Levene <\/p>\n

The National Gallery<\/p>\n

The first Big Smoke finalist is the\u00a0National Gallery<\/a>. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the institution had its 200th birthday<\/a> in 2024, and projects celebrating the occasion have played an important part in its application for this year\u2019s prize. The gallery celebrated its bicentenary by entirely rehanging its collection<\/a>. It also widened its focus beyond the capital with the launch of its travelling art studio programme, Art Road Trip, a collaboration with 24 local arts organisations to create community-led arts projects across 18 places in the UK.<\/p>\n

And the National Gallery isn\u2019t resting on its laurels. The institution recently revealed designs for a brand-new wing, which you can read all about here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

V&A East Storehouse<\/p>\n

The second London finalist in this year\u2019s comp is a newbie on the scene. Having opened in May 2025, V&A East Storehouse<\/a> definitely doesn\u2019t have the same historical significance as the National Gallery, but it\u2019s managed to make a serious impression in just a matter of months, already welcoming more than half a million people. Stacked with more than 250,000 objects and 350,000 books from the V&A\u2019s archives, it offers a peek behind the scenes to show how a working museum goes about cataloguing and caring for artefacts, making it the first public venue of its kind<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer\"
\nPhotograph: David LeveneArchivist unveils huge artwork on floor at V&A East Storehouse <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the V&A\u2019s first Art Fund rodeo. The Young V&A<\/a> won the grand prize in 2024, while the original Victoria and Albert Museum<\/a> took\u00a0all the glory in 2016.<\/p>\n

The two London institutions<\/a> will fight it out against other finalists The Box in Plymouth, Cambridge\u2019s The Fitzwilliam Museum and Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery to be crowned the reigning champ.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to play for, too, because the winning museum will win a whopping \u00a3120,000. The rest of the finalists are guaranteed \u00a320,000 in prize money \u2013 \u00a35,000 more than they\u2019ve been given in previous years. Quids in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Past winners of Art Fund Museum of the Year<\/p>\n

The very first Museum of the Year prize was awarded to London\u2019s William Morris Gallery. Here\u2019s a roundup of all the winners since then.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n2025 \u2013 Beamish – The Living Museum of the North, Durham

\n2024 \u2013 Young V&A, London

\n2023 \u2013 The Burrell Collection, Glasgow

\n2022 \u2013 Horniman Museum and Gardens, London

\n2021 \u2013 Firstsite, Colchester

\n2020 – Aberdeen Art Gallery; Gairloch Museum; Science Museum; South London Gallery; and Towner Eastbourne.

\n2019 – St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff\u00a0

\n2018 – Tate St Ives

\n2017 – The Hepworth, Wakefield

\n2016 – Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London

\n2015 – Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

\n2014 – Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

\n2013 – William Morris Gallery, London <\/p>\n

Did you see that this free London art festival is massively expanding this summer \u2013 it\u2019ll take over a whole borough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plus: Time Out\u2019s review of London\u2019s spectacular new V&A East Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke \u2013 from news and reviews to events and trends. Just\u00a0follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up for our\u00a0free Time Out London newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As dream jobs go, travelling to museums and galleries across the country to hand-pick the best the nation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[494,552,27,553],"class_list":{"0":"post-17760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-categories-art","10":"tag-london","11":"tag-news-art"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116436668446280240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}