Young V&A has been announced as one of five finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024, the world’s largest museum prize.
Art Fund annually shortlists five outstanding museums for Museum of the Year. The 2024 edition recognises inspiring projects from autumn 2022 through to winter 2023, with audiences and communities at their heart – with a particular focus on community engagement, sustainable ways of working, and demonstration of ambition by reinventing what it means to be ‘the best’ museum for the audiences of today and tomorrow.
Dr Helen Charman, Director of Young V&A, said: “It’s been a thrilling year of firsts for Young V&A – and we’re delighted to be in the running for Art Fund’s prestigious Museum of the Year prize, alongside a brilliant range of finalists. We designed Young V&A with and for our youngest audiences and their grown-ups. Tasked by children to create ‘the world’s most joyful museum’ and underpinned by the vital role of creativity and play in children’s lives, Young V&A is an uplifting, child-centred space to have fun, be imaginative, and take inspiration from the V&A’s incredible collections. It’s an honour to be recognised by Art Fund for this, and we can’t wait to welcome the judges – and more people – to experience Young V&A.”
Young V&A is a museum sparking creativity now and for the future. Created with and for children from early years to early teens, it is a place for young people to imagine, play and design, and get inspired by the almost 2000 toys, characters, objects, and artworks on display from around the world and across history. Rooted in its local community with a 150-year heritage as East London’s first museum, Young V&A strives to energise young creators as well as empower everyone to promote creativity now and for the next generation and support the teaching of art and design education for all.
Young V&A opened on 1 July 2023 following a £13 million capital project to transform the former V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green into a trail-blazing museum of creativity, with a brief from the museum’s young co-designers to create ‘the world’s most joyful museum’. Young V&A offers three active, innovative permanent galleries (Play, Imagine and Design); a dynamic temporary exhibition space; beautifully restored Grade II listed architectural features; improved retail and café spaces; new accessible routes and facilities, including an accredited Changing Places facility (the first and only in Tower Hamlets); and an enhanced and expanded Clore Learning Centre and creative studios.
Following opening, Young V&A received overwhelming positive critical acclaim for its ambitious approach to child-centred museum experiences and thoughtful consideration of audience needs. Young V&A has welcomed a remarkable 590,376 people since opening to end of March 2024 – a 223% increase on the V&A Museum of Childhood’s figures for the same period in 2019/20 – demonstrating Young V&A’s significant appeal and impact on young people’s lives.
The other four shortlisted museums are Craven Museum (Skipton, North Yorkshire); Dundee Contemporary Arts (Dundee); Manchester Museum (Manchester) and National Portrait Gallery (London).
The winning museum will be announced at a ceremony at the National Gallery in London on 10 July and will receive £120,000. £15,000 will be given to each of the four other finalists – bringing the total prize money to £180,000.
The 2024 judging panel, chaired by Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, includes: Anupam Ganguli (Finance Director, Historic Royal Palaces), Vick Hope (broadcaster), Tania Kovats (artist) and Sir John Leighton (former Director-General, National Galleries of Scotland). The judges will visit each of the finalists to inform their decision-making, while each museum will make the most of being shortlisted over the summer through events and activities for new and current visitors.
Speaking on behalf of the judges, Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund said:
“Congratulations to Young V&A on being shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024. Each of our finalists truly has something for everyone and all have community at the very heart of their programming. Their commitment to innovative partnerships whilst operating within an extremely challenging funding environment is incredible, and I’m so pleased to see the way they support and centre young people through their work. Across a wide range of size and scale, these organisations are all real leaders in their field. I urge everyone to go and visit these extremely special spaces.”
