The past year has rightly shifted the way that cultural value is estimated
In living memory, there has been no worse year for museums and galleries, along with many other arts organisations. With closure forced on them by the pandemic, they were unable to earn money from ticket sales, shops or cafes; when they reopened for a time last summer, and again this spring, they had to cope with reduced footfall and the costs of expensive interventions to render them Covid-safe. Some of their funders, especially local authorities, have suffered gravely too, with cuts at times passed on.
The Museums Prize, run by the charity Art Fund, has a distinguished history of rewarding excellence in British institutions. Often in the past the focus has been on multimillion-pound, attention-grabbing capital projects. The past two years, though, have seen a shift in the focus of the prize – one that may portend a wider change of emphasis in how cultural value is estimated. In 2020, the prize, which was already in process when the pandemic hit, was split between the shortlisted candidates, the prize money having been doubled to £200,000. This year, entrants were asked three simple questions: what did you do that showed imagination and determination? How do you think this made a difference? How will you build on this in the future?