The Art Fund Prize

The Art Fund Prize Longlist has been announced - 10 museums and galleries which are competing for the £100,000 prize, previously known as the Gulbenkien Prize. This aims to "recognise and stimulate originality and excellence in museums and galleries in the UK, and increase public appreciation and enjoyment of all they have to offer."

Previous winners which I have visited are the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art which won in 2004 for "Landform" - the superb sculptural landscaping of it's front lawn by Charles Jencks:

Picture from the National Galleries of Scotland

The SS Great Britain in Bristol won in 2006. I've blogged about it before - it truly is a fantastic visitor attraction:

Last Year's winner was the British Museum, specifically for their "History of the World in 100 Objects" which was accompanied by an excellent radio series.

This year's list has two institutions I've visited and two old friends which have been extensively refurbished but which I haven't been back to since they reopened.

Bristol's M Shed is housed in the former home of the Industrial Museum and is a hands-on, interactive museum which tells Bristol's story as a centre of trade and commerce, slavery and home to an ever-evolving ethnic-mix. Somewhat controversial locally (it ran over-time and over-budget), it is the type of museum which benefits from repeated visits, rather than seen as a challenge to "do" in one visit.

A similar thing can be said of another leading candidate - Glasgow's Riverside Museum. It's a replacement for the Museum of Transport but covers elements of social history and the shipbuilding heritage of the Clyde on which it sits. To top that it is designed by Zaha Hadid and is, quite simply a fabulous building. Two future photo blogs are planned (I visited it when I was home at Christmas) but here's a teaser picture:

Edinburgh's refurbished Portrait Gallery and the extensively refurbished and redeveloped National Museum of Scotland (blogged about by Caron at Caron's Musings here) are also nominated - they're also top of my list for visits next time I'm home!

The remaining candidates are:

Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes

Hepworth Wakefield

Holburne Museum, Bath - as this is about 12 miles away from me, I have little excuse not to visit!

Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter

Turner Contempory, Margate

Watts Gallery, Guildford

Full details are on The Art Fund Prize website - I look forward to seeing the shortlist and the eventual winner.

Andrew

100 Iconic Objects... in just 5 minutes

I blogged here about the Radio 4 series "A History of the World in a Hundred Objects". This landmark series told the history of humankind through a selection of objects housed in the British Museum. Today, the last episode was broadcast, although I still have a couple of weeks worth to catch up on.

Neil MacGregor manages to make each episode informative without being too heavy or too worthy. His tone is light and conversation with additional insights provided by a range of experts or public figures with a particular perspective to share.

Episodes can be found in the Apple iTunes Store or downloaded from the BBC MicroSite. In the meantime, here's a video of all 100 objects.

Andrew

Ozymandias - KIng of Kings

I've mentioned before that I've been enjoying listening to the BBC's A History of the World in 100 objects series. The poem I've chosen to showcase this week was inspired by a recent episode about this bust of Pharaoh Ramesses II, although Shelley had probably not actually seen the sculpture first hand.



Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

More about the sculpture can be found here and there's more about the poem here.


Andrew

Click here for more poetry.

A History of the World

As I've mentioned previously, I started a new job last week. One of the benefits of this is that my commute is that by foot and train rather than car, which means I can read and listen to my iPod.

As well as having music on my iPod, I've also downloaded a whole host of podcasts from the BBC - meaning I can listen to programmes I wouldn't normally be able to. One of these is Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects.

The series is presented by Neil MacGregor, who is a director of the British Museum. He has chosen 100 objects from the museum's collection with which to illustrate the story of human development from the earliest times. Each programme takes the form of 15 minute essay describing the object in question, the cultural background of it's creation and what it tells about our history.

I have to say I was sceptical at first - indeed before I knew the format of the programme, I thought it might be in a 5 minute slot. I've been won over by the conversational style of delivery and the obvious enthusiasm MacGregor has for his subject.

The programme is supported by an interactive and informative website which contains information on all the objects as well as allowing listeners to view the objects in detail.

Andrew