V&A Dundee missed out on the title of the nation’s museum of the year at a prestigious awards ceremony last night.
The £80 million Kengo Kuma-designed museum narrowly missed out on the £100,000 prize at a ceremony in London’s Science Museum on Wednesday.
St Fagan’s National Museum of History in Wales scooped up the accolade.
The winner of #MuseumOfTheYear 2019 is @StFagans_Museum
It’s won because our judges were impressed by how it lives, breathes and embodies the culture and identity of Wales and by the way it's forged a new and meaningful model of community collaboration
Llongyfarchiadau! pic.twitter.com/LxNv7QsqSs
— Art Fund (@artfund) July 3, 2019
As a finalist in the competition the Dundee attraction, which opened last September, will receive £10,000.
At the heart of the city’s waterfront, @VADundee opened its doors in 2018 after 11 years of planning and construction, becoming the UK’s first design museum outside London.
It started life as a partnership between @V_and_A, @scotgov and organisations like @HeritageFundUK pic.twitter.com/FH3EvV4wh0— Art Fund (@artfund) July 3, 2019
Judges praised the UK’s only design museum outside London for its “exquisitely designed Oak Room” and major exhibitions which highlight the “best of design from around the world”.
Also shortlisted was the HMS Caroline in Belfast, Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, the Nottingham Contemporary and the eventual winner, St Fagan’s, located near Cardiff.
