The Whitworth up for UK’s biggest arts prize

Reborn gallery announced as a finalist for the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2015. The Whitworth art gallery has been selected as a finalist for the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2015. The coveted Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2015 is the largest arts prize in the UK, celebrating the very best museums and galleries and acknowledging the creative and innovative ways they bring objects and collections to life for the public. The winning museum will be presented with £100,000 and crowned 'Museum of the Year 2015' at an awards ceremony held at Tate Modern, London in July. The nomination follows a widely-acclaimed redevelopment project by MUMA (McInnes Usher McKnight Architects) that reconnected the gallery to its surrounding Whitworth Park and doubled the public space. Director of the Whitworth, Maria Balshaw, said: "When we reopened the Whitworth on 14 February we asked visitors to 'Fall in Love Again' with the Whitworth. With 130,000 visitors in two months we have exceeded all our hopes for our new building.