People’s History Museum loses out on Art Fund shortlist, despite winning popular vote
Article published: Wednesday, May 25th 2011
The People’s History Museum has not been selected to feature on the shortlist for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize, despite having come first in a popular vote of the longlisted candidates. The decision was announced by the Prize’s Chair of Judges, former Tory Defence Minister Michael Portillo, on an episode of Radio 4’s Front Row last week.
A poster on display at the museum during the judges' visit.
The longlist of ten candidates was announced in February, and the public were able to vote online for which they thought should win. The People’s History Museum won comfortably, achieving 26 per cent of the vote. Second placed was the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Aryshire, with 14 per cent.
However the panel of judges, despite some publicly expressing their admiration for the museum, selected the Robert Burns Museum, the Polar Museum at the University of Cambridge, the Roman Baths Museum in Bath, and the British Museum in London for the shortlist of four. Of these, the Polar Museum won 5 per cent, the British Museum 8 per cent, and the Roman Baths Museum 13 per cent of the popular vote.
The People’s History Museum had its funding from the Department for Culture stripped following October’s Comprehensive Spending Review, leading to protests. It was described as “non-national” despite holding the largest collection of political banners in the world and possessing expert facilities for their preservation.
At the time, museum director Katy Archer described it as “the national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people in Britain and their campaign for democracy over the past 200 years”.
The British Museum continues to receive money from the Department, despite receiving extensive private sponsorship. A three-year membership for a corporation as a “global partner” costs £94,000. The project it was longlisted for, A History of the World in 100 Objects, was conducted jointly with the BBC. Following Portillo’s announcement of the shortlist, Front Row’s Mark Lawson suggested the museum was favourite to win.
In a statement, Portillo told Mule that the public poll was only one of five criteria. He added that the judges “visited all 10 museums and galleries, and made a decision based on information and experiences from the long list, judging them against the full set of criteria. To ensure fairness in the judging process as members of the public are unlikely to have visited all ten long listed institutions, the public poll is used for information only to help us assess one of the five criteria.”
In a statement, Archer wished the shortlisted museums luck and thanked the public for their support. The winner will be announced in London on 15 June.
Tom Fox
More: Cuts, Local economy, News
Comments
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wonder what portillo didn’t like about it…
Comment by abel heywood on May 25, 2011 at 10:16 pm -
Not sure whether this is the likes of the ‘artist’ Deller etc. biting the hand that overfeeds it, or the popular vote being unrepresentative dur to MOSI bussing in thousands of unwilling schoolkids every year to boost it figures?
Comment by B. Roger on May 31, 2011 at 4:00 pm
The comments are closed.
