THE Yorkshire Sculpture Park has been nominated for Britain's largest arts prize.

The park, at West Bretton, has been put on the `long' shortlist for The Gulbenkian Prize.

Every year a museum or gallery deemed to have created the most innovative project is awarded the prize - £100,000.

The park has been coming up with unusual ideas since it was founded in 1977.

It pioneered the practice of showing sculptures in an open-air setting.

But the project which has put it on The Gulbenkian Prize list is its new Underground Gallery.

It was commissioned in April, 2003, and completed in December, 2004, at a cost of £2.75m.

The underground facility has over 600sq metres of space, split into three gallery areas.

It is one of the largest purpose-built galleries to be constructed in recent years.

The gallery has enabled the park to show different kinds of exhibitions, including light installations by James Turrell which are on show until September.

Peter Murray, executive director of the park, said: "It is a great honour to be considered for this year's Gulbekian Prize.

"We work very hard to promote wider public appreciation and enjoyment of art and our new underground gallery has certainly captured the imagination, winning the support and enthusiasm of visitors and artists."

There are nine other competitors for The Gulbenkian Prize.

They include the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in London and the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

A panel of seven art, science and museum professionals will judge the contest.

These include science writer and broadcaster Prof Lord Robert Winston, historian and broadcaster Dan Snow and Michael Day, chief executive of Historic Royal Palaces.

The judges will have until April to whittle the `long' list of 10 venues down to a shortlist of just four.

They will then choose a winning venue, which will be announced on May 25 at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

The Gulbenkian Prize is administered by a charity called The Museum Prize.

This was set up in 2001 by the Campaign for Museums, the Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund and National Heritage.