Scapa Flow Museum awaits award announcement

The Scapa Flow Museum will find out tonight if it has won the Arts Fund Museum of the Year Award, live on BBC’s The One Show.

The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony, broadcast form fellow finalist the Natural History Museum, London, which will be covered live on the flagship BBC show.

The £120,000 award, now in it’s tenth year, is billed as “the worlds biggest museum award.”

The Scapa Flow Museum is joined on the shortlist by the Natural History Museum in London, the Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) in Belfast, Glasgow’s the Burrell Collection and Leighton House in London.

An Arts Fund spokeswoman said: “The shortlisted museums demonstrate transformational impact, redeveloping their offers with diverse and inspiring stories at their heart and responding to vital issues of today.”

Each finalist will receive £15,000.

The judges, who visited Orkney on June 13, include Art Find director Jenny Waldman and historian and broadcaster Mary Beard.

The Scapa Flow Museum reopened in 2022 after a £4.4 million refurbishment and held a grand opening featuring Sir Chris Hoy on April 29 this year

Praising the shortlisted museums, Jenny Waldman, director of the arts fund said: “Each of them is a blueprint for future innovation in museums. Visit them if you possibly can.”