Thackray Museum of Medicine among finalists for world’s largest prize

A museum in Leeds has been shortlisted for the world’s largest museum prize along with four others.

Thackray Museum of Medicine, Leeds, Centre for Contemporary Art, Londonderry, Experience Barnsley, Firstsite, Colchester and Timespan, Helmsdale are the finalists for the £100,000 Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021 prize. 

Nat Edwards, chief executive of Thackray, said: “When I heard that we were finalists for the Art Fund Museum of the Year, I thought it was a fabulous surprise. Then I looked at all the incredible people and communities I work with and how they have all pulled together during such an impossible time, and I realised it wasn’t a surprise at all.

"They are amazing. Our museum is amazing. Now making the final for the Museum of the Year is going to help us tell a lot more people that.”

The museum recently completed a  £4.1m redevelopment and played a crucial role in the pandemic as it was the first museum in the UK to transform into a vaccine hub.

The museum will reopen on Thursday (22) from 4pm with a big launch event including speakers from the government and funders, a statement said.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in September. The other four shortlisted museums will each receive £15,000.