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

Brunel's SS Great Britain

Recently I had my parents staying with me for a week which gave me the chance to play tourist around Bristol and do some of things I've been meaning to do since I moved here. One of these was to visit the award-winning exhibition of the SS Great Britain.

The attraction has three distinct elements. First you descend beneath the shallow pool around the boat (positioned at about the level of the normal waterline) into the dry-dock. You can then walk around the entire ship and admire the workmanship of those who pinned the iron plates together, as well as the ingenuity of Brunel's screw propeller and balanced-rudder. Patches of rust and a number of holes in the hull give a hint of the challenge that faced those wishing to restore the ship. The dock has to be kept at (from memory) c. 20% humidity in order to continue the work of preserving the vessel.

The next section is the "Dockyard" Museum which tells the story of the ship in reverse from her rescue from where she had been abandoned in Port Stanley, her use as a coal ship, her voyages on the emigrant route from Britain to Australia (as well as a stint as a troop ship during the Crimean War) to her original purpose as a Luxury Transatlantic Liner.

Finally, you board the ship and, with the help of a choice of audio-tours, you can explore the deck, see  the first class cabins, the galley and steerage, gaining an insight into the way people would have lived during the long voyages. Perhaps most amazing is the replica engine which has been installed to give an idea of the scale of the engineering feat Brunel pulled off in developing "the world’s first iron-hulled, steam-powered ocean going ship."

My ticket is valid for a year and I fully intend to make use of it again. Indeed, as I am off work on Monday I may even go then! Anyway, this post is about some of the photos I took - here they are:

The replica propeller

Below the waterline

The Deck

Replica Engine (detail)

The Stern

The story of the Steam Ship Great Britain is fascinating on many levels - the ingenuity of the engineering, her history as a passenger liner, the changes and adaptations over the years, her decline to become a cargo vehicle and then her ultimate demise in the Falkland Islands. The achievements of bringing her back to Bristol (right to the dock in which she was built) and her restoration are amazing. If you are ever in Bristol for any length of time, add her to your list.

Andrew