The Box, Plymouth's museum, gallery and archive, has been named Art Fund Museum of the Year 2026, announced at a ceremony aboard the Cutty Sark in London on 25 June 2026. The award, described by the Art Fund as the world's largest museum prize, carries £120,000 for the winner, with each of the four other shortlisted museums receiving £20,000.
The shortlist, announced in April 2026, put five museums in England forward: alongside The Box were the National Gallery in London — recognised for its NG200 programme, the transformed Sainsbury Wing and new learning spaces — and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, with the remaining finalists spanning the regions. The Art Fund credits the prize to museums demonstrating unexpected, innovative and forward-thinking practice, per the charity's published criteria.
For readers of a craft magazine, The Box's win lands with particular weight. Since opening in 2020 in Plymouth's former museum and library buildings, it has made the city's making history central — permanent galleries built around the figureheads once carried by Royal Navy warships, alongside programmes that treat regional craft, industry and memory as one story. A regional museum holding a national prize argues that the institutions collecting makers' work are not only in capital cities — a point regional museum advocacy and museum funding coverage have pressed for years.
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The prize money is directed by winners into future programmes rather than trophies, and the Art Fund publishes the judges' citations on its website each year. Museum of the Year will return in twelve months; for now the banner is flying in Plymouth, Britain's Ocean City.
