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Five museums from across the UK have been named as finalists for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025, the world’s largest and most prestigious museum prize.
Celebrating innovation, creativity and community engagement, the annual award recognises outstanding achievements in the museum and gallery sector. This year’s finalists showcase a broad range of experiences, from living history and contemporary art to major new redevelopments, reflecting the evolving role of museums in modern society.
The finalists are Beamish, The Living Museum of the North (County Durham); Chapter (Cardiff); Compton Verney (Warwickshire); Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast); and Perth Museum (Perth & Kinross).
Beamish offers visitors a glimpse into life in North East England across four periods – the 1820s, 1900s, 1940s and 1950s – in an expansive open-air setting. Chapter, located in the heart of Cardiff, is one of Wales’s leading arts centres, housing a gallery, artists’ studios, theatres, cinemas, a café bar and a community garden.
Compton Verney, based in a Grade I-listed 18th-century mansion surrounded by Capability Brown-designed parkland, holds six art collections and a sculpture park.
In Belfast, Golden Thread Gallery, which moved into a new city centre venue in August 2024, features two large galleries, a community engagement hub and Northern Ireland’s first dedicated visual art library and archive.
Perth Museum, which reopened in March 2024 following a £27 million redevelopment of the former Perth City Hall, displays the Stone of Destiny and tells 10,000 years of Scottish and global history through a local lens.
The winning museum will receive £120,000, with each of the four other finalists awarded £15,000, bringing the total prize money to £180,000. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Museum of Liverpool on 26 June – the first time the event has been hosted outside London.
Art Fund annually selects five museums that have demonstrated outstanding achievement over the previous year. For the 2025 prize, judges considered activity from autumn 2023 through winter 2024, assessing not only the organisations’ overall impact but also the projects and people who have engaged with communities, families, younger visitors, artists and creatives.
The judging panel for 2025 is chaired by Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, and includes artist Rana Begum, Dr David Dibosa, director of research and interpretation at Tate, Jane Richardson, chief executive of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, and comedian and writer Phil Wang. Judges will visit each finalist over the coming weeks to inform their decision.
Jenny Waldman said: “This year’s finalists are inspiring examples of museums at their best – deeply connected to their local communities, responsive to the world around them, and alive with energy and ideas. Each one offers a distinctive experience, showing the endless creativity and care that goes into making museums inspiring and exciting spaces for everyone.”
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