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Art Fund Prize 2010 Long-list

A long list of eleven museums and galleries are in the running to win the £100,000 Art Fund Prize, the UK’s largest single arts prize.

New Social Network for Museum Professionals

Take a moment to join the new IDEAS exchange and SOCIAL network for MUSEUM professionals. It only takes a minute and is free of charge. It's a great way to make new contacts, keep in touch with colleagues and share ideas and experiences with other museum professionals over the world.

Transforming Tate Modern

Tate will shortly start demolition work to clear the area directly south of Tate Modern, making way for a new £215 million new development. The project will address some of the strains on the current building. The gallery was originally designed for 2 million visitors but current visitor numbers reach up to 5 million.

New Ulster Museum Attracts Landmark Visitor Numbers

Described as one of the most important cultural projects ever to be undertaken in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Museum’s £17million landmark refurbishment project has resulted in a dramatic but sensitive transformation of the south Belfast building.

MAXXI - National Museum of the XXI Century Arts

The MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Art is Italy’s first national public museum dedicated to contemporary art and architecture. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the ultramodern museum is situated in Rome’s Flaminio neighbourhood, on the site of the former military barracks.

V&A’s new Medieval & Renaissance Galleries

The V&A’s £30 million Medieval & Renaissance Galleries mark the completion of the first phase of the Museum’s £120 million Future Plan transformation. The new galleries are the biggest project the V&A has undertaken since the British Galleries opened in 2001 and have been seven years in the making. Ten new galleries, occupying the entire south east wing of the Museum, display 1800 objects from the V&A’s collection of medieval and Renaissance treasures.

Oxford First: Ashmolean's £61m Transformation

The new building will provide the Ashmolean with 100% more display space. It comprises 39 new galleries, including 4 temporary exhibition galleries, a new education centre, state-of-the-art conservation studios, and Oxford’s first rooftop restaurant. In the Cockerell Building, the newly refurbished galleries of Western Art will reopen after 10 months of closure.

New Networks = End of the Association?

UK museums are currently served by more than 30 membership groups and organisations. Here Nick Poole, Chief Executive of the Collections Trust, looks at the new trend in museums towards self-organising networks and the end of the big Association...

Metamorphosis: The New Darwin Centre

Get ready to experience the Natural History Museum’s metamorphosis when the landmark new Darwin Centre opens to the public on 15 September 2009. One of the highlights will be Cocoon, a 65-metre-long, eight-storey-high cocoon at the heart of the building. Here for the first time you'll see into the hidden world of scientific research, where real Museum scientists work on cutting-edge research.

Learning lessons from a decade of museum websites

Mia Ridge, Lead Web Developer, Science Museum, on learning the lessons from a decade of museum websites and the opportunity to look at the organisational changes museums might face as both the expectations of their audiences and their own working practices have been influenced by their interactions online

Museums driving force in building better communities

MLA chief executive Roy Clare argues the work of museums, libraries and archives to support learning and skills, wellbeing and bridging the digital divide showed that the sector is a driving force for empowering individuals and building better communities. At a time when the economy is looking for a boost, culture-led regeneration programmes have the potential to bring long-lasting rewards and value for money.

Radical Plans for Museums Under Conservative Government

Jeremy Hunt MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, lays out the Conservatives radical plans for museums, galleries and heritage if they win the next election. Their plans includes streamlining bureaucracy, boosting philanthropy, Lottery reform and economic opportunity.

London Calling: New Galleries, New Stories

Museum of London is preparing for its most ambitious project to date. In spring 2010, the Museum will unveil the Galleries of Modern London; a spectacular redevelopment taking the story of London and its people up to the present day, positioning the Museum at the heart of the capital ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

Real Time Twittering: Rewards and Risks

Brands are starting to proactively follow Twitter users and reply to tweets that mention their brand name. Is this legitimate? Peer Lawther, Senior Online Marketing Executive for the Science Museum, talks through the rewards and risks for museums...

Museums & Me: Tony Butler

“The old default position of the sector, which is to put heads down and hope no-one will notice when it comes to cuts, is untenable. If we are to reflect the world in which we live, we shouldn’t see permanency as the norm. There’ll be some closures, but mergers and partnerships are more likely. Organisations grow or shrink, merge or disappear and museums should be no different"

Special Feature: OPERA Retrospective

OPERA works in a broad range of architectural projects. Their portfolio contains several large-scale museum interiors and major exhibition designs, including: Museum Twentse Welle, Enschede; National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden; Museum of World Culture, Göteborg

Inclusive Practice: Access to Art for Older Visitors

Caroline Marcus, Access Officer at The National Gallery in London, explains how a special event for two hundred older visitors and volunteer facilitators aimed to highlight existing inclusive practice and recent new developments and initiatives in the area of accessibility.

Making a Male-led Exhibition Appeal to the Masses

Leonardo and his Machines: making a male-led exhibition appeal to the masses. The Lightbox in Woking discuss their latest successful exhibition and their strategy to drive varied audiences to what could be perceived as a male orientated subject.

Sleepwalking into the Storm

Nick Poole, Chief Executive of The Collections Trust, on why the museum sector needs to be taking urgent pre-emptive action in the face of very hard times ahead. He argues that the glory days are gone, and in the absence of the injection of large sums of Central Government money, suddenly the whole infrastructure of UK museums is starting to look decidely shaky...

Greener Museums: Tate's Sustainability Plan

Rachel Madan of Greener Museums on her work with Tate which over the last few years has taken more responsibility for its impact on society and the environment. They want the galleries to continue to deliver a rich, exceptional experience, and also to operate in a way that has minimal negative impact on the world.

The Public (finally) opens to the public - but for how long?

The project has been beset with delays, funding problems and technical issues. The Arts Council withdraw its £500,000 annual grant to the gallery in January. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council agreed to emergency funding to allow the project to continue before another £3m was made available from the Arts Council in July this year to enable the completion of the project.

Museum Authority, Knowledge and Conflict

Piotr Bienkowski on how museum authority has traditionally been based on knowledge – or a particular form of knowledge. This article analyses that type of knowledge, and the authority that is based on it. It explores three examples of how museums have attempted to share or cede authority and control.

Museum Authority: What is Truth?

David Jones, Keeper of Human History at Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service responds to Piotr Bienkowski's article 'Museum Authority, Knowledge and Conflict' and argues that a rejection of the scientific paradigm and the idea that museums are an authoritative voice would be an act of self mutilation.

Do Objects Really Speak for Themselves?

David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool: 'At the heart of the question is the role of museums. Not definition, but role. Definitions of museums usually state that museums collect, preserve and interpret objects, and if there are no objects then the insitution is not a museum. This is true, but it is not same as saying that’s what museums are about'

Museums and the Political Landscape

Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum, discusses the fundamental union between museums and the political landscape and focuses on whether it truly is possible to create a museum which is not only accessible and inclusive but relevant to the needs of society

The National Trust: The Interpretation Experiment

Ben Cowell - Assistant Director, External Affairs describes a very real experiment that is starting to take place at the National Trust. The ‘Atmospheres’ project attempts to bring the Trust’s unique properties to life, in a way that has never been properly attempted before. It is being run as a trial at a number of the Trust’s key sites and so far the response has been fantastic

Building time: experiencing museum architecture as history

"...buildings can permit the experience of time that I want to examine, and I want to begin to ask: if buildings do permit an experience of time, to what purposes might such an experience be put? How can we harness the power of what we might term ‘architectural narrative’?" Professor Jack Lohman - Director, Museum of London

Encyclopaedic museum versus the story-led visitor experience

In 21st century museum interpretation practice, the word "fact" has become almost synonymous with "dull". The interpretation team from Historic Royal Palaces argue that storytelling is a powerful technique that we need to embrace yet use judiciously.

How to engage the community to become an award-winning gallery

The Lightbox has moved from very small beginnings with modest aspiration to winning the £100,000 Art Fund Prize in 2008. It is truly an example of people power, how if a community gets behind a project and realizes it’s value then it can become a success

Power to the People: How to Capitalise on User Groups

Some museum exhibitions are brilliantly conceived but fall down on a disastrous flaw that could have been avoided through close consultation with the target audience. Discover how to capitalise on user groups when planning exhibitions and interpretation.

Are Museums Safe Under the Tories?

A quick look at the opinion polls suggests the Conservatives may well form the next government. If they do Jeremy Hunt will be the next Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport. Greg Chamberlain went to meet him to ask if museums are safe in his hands and what the difficult economic times will mean for museum funding...

Evaluating Origins: how an exhibition is experienced by visitors

A new National Museum Wales exhibition attempts to move beyond the traditional archaeological narrative to draw out contemporary messages. And as National Museum Wales is a learning organisation, it is committed to the evaluation of all its exhibitions. Here Melanie Youngs, Steve Burrow and Philippa Diment report on their findings

Fuglsang Kunstmuseum on Stirling Prize Shortlist

The Fuglsang Kunstmuseum in Denmark has made the shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2009. The design consciously eschews the two stereotypes of the modern-day art space: the flashy icon project designed to pull in the punters, and the white cube, designed to attract, rather, the opposite, a rarefied audience of connoisseurs.

Glasgow's new open storage facility

Dr Ellen McAdam, Collections Services Manager at Culture and Sport Glasgow, on the second phase of Glasgow Museums Resource Centre: "As museum display becomes increasingly complex, technical and expensive, perhaps the GMRC model of no-frills, personal interaction with museum objects offers an alternative future for museums in our post-credit crunch, climatically changing world"

Wedgwood Museum Scoops £100,000 Art Fund Prize

The Wedgwood Museum in Stoke-on-Trent has won the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries. The award was announced on 18 June at a reception at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London by Chair of the Judges, David Puttnam.

Museum of the Future: New £100m Vision for Science Museum

The Science Museum has announced its £100 million master plan for the future. Museum of the Future, as this vision has been named, was unveiled to launch Science Museum's 100th birthday celebrations. Expected to be completed in 2015, Museum of the Future is an architectural vision for the Science Museum that includes important new and updated galleries.

Eureka! Green Power! New interactive exhibit for children

A new interactive exhibit at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum in Halifax, West Yorkshire, tells children all about new hydrogen technology.

Acropolis Now: €130m New Museum Opens

The New Acropolis Museum had its official opening on Saturday June 20. The €130 million project offers a 360-degree panoramic view of the Acropolis and modern Athens. With exhibition space of more than 14,000 square meters and a full range of modern visitor amenities, the New Acropolis Museum tells the complete story of life on the Athenian Acropolis.

Review: The Terror Háza Museum - Budapest

House of Terror - A Budapest museum remembers the tyrannies of the Nazi party and the Soviet-backed secret police. Review by Jan Lorenc – President & Design Director, Lorenc+Yoo Design, and Richard Lorenc - Director of Outreach, Illinois Policy Institute

Diffusing interpretative authority in museums

The National Waterfront Museum in Swansea has attempted to break the museum mould in a thoughtful and elegant way that capitalises upon the benefits of interactive new media to provide a more diffused authority in its interpretative narrative.

Great North Museum: £26m Flagship Destination Opens

Newcastle’s Great North Museum, a new £26million flagship attraction for the region, opens its doors to the public on Saturday 23 May. Highlights include Living Planet - a spectacular double-height gallery with animals from around the world; an interactive model displaying exhibits from the length of Hadrian’s Wall; and a life-size replica T. rex skeleton.

New National Trust Interpretation Sound Experiment

The National Trust is to offer a new form of interpretation – through the atmosphere of sound in an empty house. To enable visitors to record their thoughts about the new interpretation, a dedicated phone will offer the chance to give their reactions, tell their own stories and to comment on how the house could be used long term.

The Pitt Rivers Re-opens

On the 1st May the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford re-opened to visitors after the completion a ten month second phase of redevelopment to improve its public and education facilities. The changes allow visitors to appreciate afresh the significance of this extraordinary collection.

Liverpool: The Great Museum Experiment of Our Time?

David Fleming is driven by the social value of museums. And as Director of National Museums Liverpool, with all its financial clout and resources, he’s in a unique and powerful position to pursue his agenda on a grand scale. David is an influential and vocal member of the museum community, yet one somehow outside the establishment. It gives him a freedom to experiment he obviously relishes...

The 2009 £100,000 Art Fund Prize Long-list

Ten Museums Compete for £100,000 Art Fund Prize. And for the first time museums in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are represented on the long list. Projects include The Braid Arts Centre, The Sackler Centre at the V&A, and the Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent...

Advanced and Accessible Storage: Leeds Discovery Centre

Leeds Museum Discovery Centre is one of the most advanced museum storage facilities in the United Kingdom. Within it’s walls can be found roughly 1,000,000 artefacts from all over the world. Martin Gresswell, Project Development Officer, Leeds Museums & Galleries, on creating an advanced storage facility accessible to all.

How to create an innovative and pioneering marketing campaign

When 81 museums in the North East joined forces to market themselves to the public, the pioneering campaign "I like Museums..." was born. Find out more about the innovative promotional drive that brought together museums across the North East in possibly the biggest collaborative effort of its kind in the UK museums sector...

The Royal Institution Re-opens after Redevelopment

The Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) opened its doors to the public in September 2008 following a two and a half year make over by architect Sir Terry Farrell. Free and open to everyone Monday to Friday from 9am to 9pm, the redevelopment see the three floors of exhibition space entwined with a café, lounge-bar and brand new restaurant (Time & Space).

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