Scottish trio compete for£100,000 UK art accolade

THREE of Scotland’s major new cultural attractions are to compete for Britain’s biggest arts prize, it emerged yesterday.

Glasgow’s new Riverside Museum will go head-to-head with the new-look National Museum of Scotland and the revamped Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize.

All three projects were unveiled in the space of six months last year.

They will be up against attractions in Exeter, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Wakefield, Bath, Margate and Guildford.

Last year, the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, in Alloway, Ayrshire, also made the shortlist for the accolade.

A shortlist of four finalists will be announced in May, with the final winner unveiled the following month at the British Museum, in London.

Members of the public can vote for their favourite attraction on the official website – www.artfund.org.uk – and say why it should win the contest, which is being held for the tenth year.

Lord Smith of Finsbury (the former Labour culture minister Chris Smith), chairman of the judging panel, said: “Whittling the achievements of Britain’s museums over the past year down to a list of ten was an unbelievably challenging task.

“The quality of the projects that we settled on, however, perfectly encapsulates the vitality and dynamism of a part of our nation’s cultural life that continues to innovate, push boundaries and engage the public, even in these straitened times.”

The National Galleries of Scotland, which runs the portrait gallery, won the Art Fund Prize in 2004 with its outdoor “Landform” sculpture created by Charles Jencks. The Art Fund charity has spent £24 million over the past five years to help museums and galleries buy, show and share art.