Yorkshire Sculpture Park is one of six finalists for the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2014.
The awards, awarded annually with a value of £100,000, were established in 2003 to recognise the very best of the UK’s internationally acclaimed museums.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the National Gallery in London on July 9.
The other finalist museums are: Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, East Sussex; Hayward Gallery, London; The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich; and Tate Britain, London.
YSP’s entry highlighted 2013 activity at the Park. Last year was YSP’s busiest year ever with the presentation of world-class exhibitions by acclaimed artists, such as Yinka Shonibare MBE, Amar Kanwar and Hans Josephsohn, to 350,000 visitiors.
The year also marked the momentous opening of Roger Hiorns’ Seizure, 2008/2013, an important and stunning addition to the Park.
A Park spokesman said: “Alongside the world-class exhibition programme, YSP’s learning programme played a crucial part in the Park’s 2013 success.
“Attracting almost 45,000 learners in 2012/13, the vibrant programme offered tours, workshops, events and resources, alongside the development of groundbreaking outreach projects, which were vital in engaging new audiences and providing a unique art experience for hard to reach groups.
“Improvements were also made to the historical features of Park, including the estate’s 18th century chapel. A £500,000 restoration project carried out over the last nine months has transformed the chapel into a unique and versatile gallery space and the building will reopen to the public on May 24 with an exhibition by world renowned artist Ai Weiwei.”
The new venue displaying the preserved remains of Henry VIII’s sunken flagship the Mary Rose will compete with arts institutions such as the Hayward Gallery and Tate Britain for the UK’s top museum award.
The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth opened in May 2013, displaying the starboard section of the ship which spent 400 years on the bed of the Solent, and reunites it with the crew’s possessions and other artefacts.
Chairman of the judges Stephen Deuchar, a former director of Tate Britain, said: “2013 was a strong year, by any standards, for UK museums and it was no easy task to select a shortlist of six from an extraordinary body of applications. It is almost as if imaginative and innovative curatorship, combined with the highest standards of presentation, is no longer the exception but the rule.”
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