Art Fund 2011

Art Fund Prize 2011
- announcement at Tate Britain
on Wednesday 15th June 

-and on Front Row, BBC Radio 4  the same evening.
The Four Finalists are:-
Roman Baths, Bath
British Museum (History of the World in 100 Objects)
Robert Burns' Birthplace, Alloway
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge

For Charlotte Higgins' piece on being a judge, see Guardian (12/6/2011): -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/12/arts-fund-museum-prize

Scott Polar, Cambridge



Roman Baths, Bath



Burns' Cottage





British Museum / 100 Objects









Art Fund Panel goes to Wales

The panel arrives at the elegant, refurbished Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, North Wales





oriel = "gallery"



Micahel Portillo, Kathy Gee, LT and Charlotte Higgins



Judges' chairman Michael Portillo and Lars Tharp



Mostyn's new entry Hall

ART FUND PRIZE 2011...contd
Our third group visit: The Robert Burns' Centre, Alloway

- into the cottage where RB was born and lived up to the age of seven

Hogarth's Comic Relief...

Spot the Red Nose? (Hogarth meets Westwood)

Art Fund Prize 2011 continued...

Our second 2011 Art Fund Prize Group visit: 
to York Museum  - house of amazing treasures

- How the whole York museum team rolled up their sleeves, pulled down and replaced walls and ceilings, discovering windows which had been blocked for decades: "Letting in the Light"

Art Fund Prize (2011) - The Visits begin...

The clock is ticking!  We've two months to visit ten long-listed museums and galleries throughout the UK before announcing our shortlist of four in May 2011, the winner to be decided in June.


This year (2011) our first panel visit with our chairman Michael Portillo was to Hertford Museum (Friday 18th Feb)  - a compelling little market town museum with dedicated volunteers and a wealth of local collections -including a fabled Bezoar Stone...We coincided with the WI market day and returned with various excellent produce including Lemon Drizzles and potted plants.

In the week the runners were announced I visited incognito*  the amazing, arabic-style Leighton House, the Kensington residence of the great Victorian painter and sculptor Alfred, Lord Leighton.

* If a judge cannot attend on the day of the official panel visit they will do so incognito at another time   -although last year hawk-eyed receptionists last year did manage to intercept and accompany me on my unannounced appearence.

Hogarth Calling...

Watch this space...