Gallery in frame for UK’s richest arts prize as birthday celebrations beckon

The Hepworth Wakefield has made it onto a shortlist of four battling it out to win the Art Fund, a £100,000 prize awarded to the museum of the year.

The venue is in line to win the tenth Art Fund award, one of the museum world’s most prestigious prizes, if it can beat off competition from The Museum for the city of Exeter, Watts Gallery in Surrey and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

The chair of judges of the Art Fund Prize, Lord Smith of Finsbury, said: “This wonderful new gallery has completely transformed the physical and cultural landscape of Wakefield and the wider region. It’s clearly one of the success stories of the museum world in the past 12 months, but whether it can beat the other three outstanding contenders remains to be seen.”

Hepworth director Simon Wallis said: “We are so delighted to have made it to the shortlist of this prestigious award and we would like to thank our wonderful audience who have supported the gallery and helped us to reach this exciting stage.

“It’s deeply gratifying to be recognised as one of the UK’s top galleries and museums.”

The museum, which opened almost exactly 12 months ago, hoped to attract 100,000 visitors in the first year – to date, it has welcomed 500,000 people through its doors and last year was one of the top ten most-visited galleries in the entire UK. A home for the work of Wakefield-born sculptor Barbara Hepworth as well as a changing range of exhibitions, the museum opened on May 21, last year and the news that it is shortlisted for the Art Fund Prize comes as it prepares for its firth birthday celebrations this coming weekend.

The gallery’s next exhibition, which opens on June 23, will feature Turner Prize 2012 nominee Luke Fowler and seminal British artist Richard Long.

The list was chosen by a panel of judges chaired by former Culture Secretary Lord Smith.

He said: “The museums on this shortlist are truly outstanding institutions, very varied in scale and theme, but sharing a remarkable commitment to connecting with their visitors and telling powerful stories through objects and images. Whittling ten really strong nominees down to a list of four was a supremely difficult process, and I’ve no doubt that deciding on a museum of the year from this list will prove equally tough.”

The winner will be announced at an event at the British Museum in London on June 19, which will be covered live on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row programme.