Museum of the Year Winner 2016: The V&A

Congratulations to the V&A, winner of the Museum of the Year award for 2016.

The award caps a remarkable year for the museum. It completed major gallery restorations, hosted its most successful attraction - the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition, welcomed 3.9 million visitors through its doors and received 14.5 million visitors online.

Stephen Deuchar, Art Fund director and chair of the judges, said: ‘The V&A experience is an unforgettable one. Its recent exhibitions from Alexander McQueen to The Fabric of India, and the opening of its new Europe 1600 – 1815 galleries, were all exceptional accomplishments - at once entertaining and challenging, rooted in contemporary scholarship, and designed to reach and affect the lives of a large and diverse national audience.

'It was already one of the best-loved museums in the country: this year it has indisputably become one of the best museums in the world.'

Organised by the Art Fund, the Museum of the Year award recognises and rewards galleries, museums and collections that have shown exceptional imagination, innovation and achievement across the preceding 12 months. As well as the accolade, the winner of the award receives a cheque for £100,000.

This year’s winning venue was selected by a judging panel comprised of Will Gompertz, BBC Arts editor; Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, curator and art historian; Stephen Deuchar; Prof Ludmilla Jordanova, Durham University; and the artist Cornelia Parker, OBE RA.

Other venues that made the 2016 shortlist include: Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Kent; Arnolfini, Bristol; Jupiter Artland, near Edinburgh; York Art Gallery. Find out more about the shortlisted venues.

Previous winners of the award include Manchester’s Whitworth, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and the Wedgewood Museum in Staffordshire.