The waterfront museum aims to attract 250,000 visitors a year

The �33m museum, which traces Wales' industrialisation and maritime trade, has seen almost 65,000 visitors since it opened in October 2005.

It is one of 10 museums and galleries competing for the Gulbenkian prize, the largest single arts award in the UK.

The nomination is the third in three years for a heritage venue in Wales.

The 2005 Gulbenkian was won by Big Pit, the disused former coal mine which employs ex-miners to recreate the pit experience for visitors.

THE 2006 GULBENKIAN LONGLIST Cambridge and County Folk Museum Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, London Dorchester Abbey Museum, Dorchester-on-Thames Hunterian Museum, London Museum of Flight, East Lothian National Waterfront Museum, Swansea Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, Bucks The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire, Lincoln SS Great Britain, Bristol Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

In 2004, Pembrokeshire Museum Services' travelling exhibition, housed in a traditional gypsy caravan, highlighting the county's Romany heritage, made it on to the prize's shortlist.

The waterfront museum, a glass-and-slate building in the maritime quarter of Swansea, was opened with an �11m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the fund's biggest single donation in Wales.

The museum has a target of attracting 250,000 visitors a year and saw more than 35,000 in the first four weeks.

The head of the museum, Steph Mastoris, said the Gulbenkian prize nomination was "fantastic" news for the whole of Wales as well as Swansea and the institution.

Judging panel

He said: "We believe that the National Waterfront Museum is ground-breaking in the way it enables visitors to explore the human history of industrial Wales through its thematic approach and leading-edge interactive interpretation.

"The superb new building not only shows off the collections dynamically but is a major attraction in the regenerated Swansea waterfront."

The prize's judging panel is chaired by the scientist, writer and broadcaster Professor Lord Robert Winston.