Museum Prize nominees announced

The nominations for this year’s Museum Prize, to be awarded on 31 May, have been announced. There are five names on the short-list from each of the three regions. In Flanders, two relative newcomers make the list: Museum M in Leuven, opened in September 2009, which features everything from Old Masters to children’s book illustrators; and the city museum STAM in Ghent (pictured), which reopened in October last year and includes a permanent exhibit on the story of the city, as well as temporary exhibits.

Ghent also scores with Het Huis van Alijn, with a collection covering daily life in the 20th century, and MIAT, the museum for industrial archaeology and textiles.

Joining them is Gaasbeek castle in the Pajottenland in Flemish Brabant, a mediaeval castle renovated in a Romantic style at the end of the 19th century by the eccentric Marquis Arconati Visconti. The museum features a collection of mediaeval artefacts, while the garden features many heirloom fruit trees. The castle will welcome a new installation by Spencer Tunick, the artist who works in the medium of naked bodies, in July.

In Brussels, the short-list includes the Comic Strip Center, the Royal Library of Belgium, the hugely popular Magritte museum, the David and Alice van Buuren museum in Ukkel and the Fine Arts museum of Elsene.

In Wallonia, meanwhile, the five nominees are the Beaux- Arts museum in Mons, the Grand Curtius museum in Liège, the House of the Giants in Ath, the silver museum in Seneffe castle and the French Community archives, also in Mons.

The winning museums, one from each region, are chosen by a professional jury and receive a prize of €10,000 each. In addition, there is also a public prize of €2,500 for the museum that receives the most votes from the public. Finally, the votes of children will decide the winner of the prize of the children's jury, who award their seal of approval to the most child-friendly museum. No cash prize is attached.

www.museumprijs.be

(May 4, 2011)