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The Pallant House Gallery, Chichester has won the 2007 Gulbenkian Prize.

"One of the strongest and most interesting holdings of 20th-century art in Britain." - Mark Fisher, Britain's Best Museums and Galleries, Penguin, 2004

Pallant House Gallery, home to one of the UK’s finest collections of modern British art, has won the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries. Situated in the historic town of Chichester, Pallant House Gallery was awarded this coveted Prize for its £8.6 million modern gallery extension, designed by Long and Kentish in association with - the sadly recently deceased - Professor Sir Colin St John Wilson.

Pictured (right and below) Pallant House, Chichester. Photo credit: Andy Paradise.

The judges were won over by the flair and sensitivity with which the new building had been integrated with the original Queen Anne House, resulting in a vibrant relationship between old and new, a theme continued in a series of inspired contemporary installations.

They particularly commended the approach to presenting this ‘collection of collections’ – 90% of which is now on display – to reflect the passion of the individual collectors whose successive gifts have enriched the Gallery’s holdings. They found the displays, whether in the historic house or the beautifully lit galleries of the new extension, both aesthetically and intellectually satisfying, and the whole experience ‘spirit-lifting’.

Pallant House Gallery was in competition for this year’s prize with Kew Palace in London, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow and Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.

Vivid & Exciting

Francine Stock, Chair of the judges, made the winning announcement at a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects, commenting: “Each of the four short-listed museums and galleries was vivid and exciting; our decision came only after impassioned, sometimes agonised, debate. We’re delighted finally to award this Prize to a jewel of a gallery. The brilliance of Pallant House Gallery lies not only in its thoughtful and intelligent curation but in the warmth and welcome of the building. There’s nothing elitist about the way this fine collection is displayed – intimate yet with space for reflection and tranquillity.”

Pallant House Gallery holds one of the best small collections of 20th century British art in the UK. Visitors can see works by artists ranging from Peter Blake, David Bomberg and Patrick Caulfield to Ben Nicholson, John Piper, Walter Sickert and Graham Sutherland. It is also one of the first galleries in the UK to install a geothermal heating and cooling system, cutting its carbon emissions by 40-50%.

The £8.6 million building project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, individual donors, trusts and foundations, Chichester District Council, Arts Council England and the Friends of Pallant House. A £1.5m donation for an endowment fund was secured to contribute to future running costs of the gallery. As well as receiving the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize, Pallant House Gallery will also be presented with a silver enamelled bowl designed by award-winning metal artist, Vladimir Böhm, which they will hold for a year. The Pallant House Gallery trustees plan to put the prize money into their endowment fund which they are aiming to grow to the stage where they will have sufficient core funding to offer free entry to the Gallery.

The Gulbenkian Prize is given annually to one museum or gallery - large or small - anywhere in the UK for excellence and innovation, regardless of its size or budget.

The judging panel for this year’s award comprised: Francine Stock, author and broadcaster as Chair, Tristram Besterman, museum consultant, former director of Manchester Museum, Richard Calvocoressi, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, Director-elect of the Henry Moore Foundation, Dr Mark Miodownik, materials scientist, head of the Materials Research Group at King's College London, Director of the Materials Library, Joanna Moorhead, journalist and author
Dan Snow, historian and broadcaster, Mohini Sule, cultural broadcaster for programmes including the BBC's Culture Show and The People’s Museum.

Biggest Single Prize

The Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries remains - at £100,000 - the biggest single arts prize in the UK. For the last five years, it has been funded by the UK branch of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a pioneering funder of developments in contemporary arts, education and social change in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and a leading agency in the promotion of Portuguese culture. The Prize is also supported by The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), the national development agency working for and on behalf of museums, libraries and archives and advising government on policy and priorities for the sector.

Last year’s winner was Brunel’s SS Great Britain in Bristol, whose visitor figures have since increased by 30%. In the past year, Brunel’s SS Great Britain has won 12 major awards, including Large Visitor Attraction 2007 and, most recently, a European Museum of the Year award for Best Industrial or Technological Museum 2007’. The winner of the first Gulbenkian Prize in 2003 was the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law at the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham. In 2004, the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art won the Gulbenkian Prize for Landform – part sculpture, part garden, part land-art – by Charles Jencks, to be followed by Big Pit: National Mining Museum of Wales, Blaenafon, in 2005.

PSP Ltd is not responsible for the contents of external websites. Photo credit (all images): Andy Paradise.

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