V&A Dundee is one of five nominees in the running to be named Museum of the Year 2019 in a prestigious competition.
The waterfront museum, which opened to the public in September, is the newest venue on this year’s shortlist.
Other nominees in the Art Fund Museum of the Year competition are HMS Caroline in Belfast, Nottingham Contemporary, Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and St Fagan’s National Museum of History near Cardiff.
The winner will receive a £100,000 prize with the four runners-up each getting £10,000.
Art Fund director and chair of the judging panel Stephen Deuchar said: “Despite, or perhaps because of, the complex environment of our times, the UK’s museums continue to challenge and inspire.
“The five shortlisted museums have each offered outstanding and different approaches to the vital task of engaging with the widest public in new and adventurous ways. We congratulate all those who are on the shortlist and encourage everyone to go and visit them.”
More than half a million people have visited V&A Dundee since it opened.
Director Philip Long said: “It is an honour for everyone who has helped create, launch and run V&A Dundee for the museum to be shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019.
“This award recognises achievements in 2018, a year when we reached the milestone of engaging over 100,000 people some six months before opening the museum, travelled across Scotland to work with young people, and then launched the museum with a thrilling family festival of design and music.
“Since opening we have already welcomed over 500,000 visitors, double our pre-opening estimates, as well as attracting many people to visit other visitor attractions in Dundee and spend time in this beautiful area of Scotland.
“2019 is set to be a very exciting year for the museum, having just opened our new exhibition Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt and now as a nominee for the biggest museum prize in the world.”
To celebrate being shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019, V&A Dundee will open late every Friday night for the run of the video games exhibition.
It is on until September 8 and the whole museum will be open until 9pm every Friday from April 26.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Science Museum in London on July 3.
Tate St Ives won the title last year while the V&A in London won in 2016.
Credit to: The Courier and Stefan Morkis
V&A Dundee
V&A at Dundee will be an international centre of design for Scotland. It will celebrate Scotland's historic importance in design and host major exhibitions of outstanding design, helping people understand their own and others' cultural heritage.
