Young V&A wins Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024

I am delighted to share the wonderful news that after its first year of opening, Young V&A has been awarded the incredible accolade of Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024 – the largest museum prize in the world. Art Fund annually shortlists five outstanding museums for Museum of the Year. The 2024 edition recognises inspiring projects from autumn 2022 through to winter 2023, with audiences and communities at their heart, and a focus on community engagement, sustainable ways of working, and demonstration of ambition by reinventing what it means to be ‘the best’ museum for the audiences of today and tomorrow.

This win is a clarion call for the vital role of creativity, culture and play in children’s lives when so many opportunities have been taken away through COVID, the cost-of-living crisis and under-investment in creative education.

The past year at Young V&A

One year ago, we opened Young V&A to hundreds of children and their families in a queue that stretched back to Bethnal Green Tube which was quite literally jumping up and down with excitement as we counted down to opening (not an overly familiar sight at opening time for museums, it’s fair to say…). We haven’t looked back since – welcoming 730k young visitors and their families over the threshold – many who whizz in on their micro-scooters, cartwheel in, and even break dance! The sheer exuberance and energy of our young visitors is palpable.

Since opening, we have supported 130k+ instances of engagement in our learning programmes, ranging from teen takeovers to sensory play for tiny tots, to quiet mornings and collaborations with our neighbouring special schools, to legendary performances by the wonderful Frank Chickens, and by dance troupes such as IMD Legion, and East London Dance. A packed stream of programming has included our first Games Festival Day, half term activity, Celebration of Storytelling and Designer in the Shed, Clara Chu.

We also opened our first exhibition Japan: Myths to Manga to critical acclaim, welcoming over 40,000 visitors to date, and more recently, Young V&A’s first major creative installation ‘Lost & Found: Yōkai’ has seen a parade of Yōkai creatures take over the top floor of the museum. Our brilliant Front of House colleagues and volunteers have ensured that every visitor to Young V&A has received a joyful and warm-hearted welcome. We’ve inducted nearly 100 volunteers, locally recruiting and leading the way for a newly energised and diverse volunteering team at Bethnal Green.

Our commitment

Our commitment at Young V&A is to playful, creative learning through harnessing the power of our national collection – and of creative people. Children told us they wanted the most joyful museum in the world and so we created an uplifting optimistic museum that is a powerhouse of creativity for children and their families, full of colour, light, pattern… with almost 2000 wondrous objects from across time and the world, drawing on the world class V&A collection and presented in ways to inspire, excite, to provoke curiosity, to fire the imagination.

It’s truly inspiring to see the Art Fund commit to Early Years in museums and as a sector, we need this advocacy to strengthen our practice and arguments for investment. The theme this year of community engagement is exactly right and at Young V&A, the hyper local work of a museum is where we take root. It is what is mutually sustaining. Even before Young V&A opened, we had worked with the schools, children’s centres, libraries, and community organisations across Tower Hamlets to build an ethic of co-production.

We recognise the positive impact creative experiences in early years has on young people’s futures – and that’s why we’ll be investing the Art Fund prize money in founding a creative network and programme for early years providers along the Thames Estuary.

From the Isle of Dogs to Southend on Sea, Young V&A will work in partnership with caregivers, artists, and early years educators to create new cultural and playful learning experiences, connecting them to the incredible opportunities at Bethnal Green. I look forward to sharing more information with you all soon.

The Art Fund finalists and judging panel

Young V&A was one of five exceptional finalists, Craven Museum (Skipton, North Yorkshire), Dundee Contemporary Arts (Dundee), Manchester Museum (Manchester) and National Portrait Gallery (London). The 2024 judging panel chaired by Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, included: Anupam Ganguli (Finance Director, Historic Royal Palaces), Vick Hope (broadcaster), Tania Kovats (artist) and Sir John Leighton (former Director-General, National Galleries of Scotland).

Vick Hope, broadcaster and judge for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024, said:

“Young V&A is such a special and unique place, offering an experience for children (and their adults) like no other out there. The museum truly places young people centre stage, encouraging them to play, design and get creative through a fascinating collection of objects and artworks.

I was inspired by the museum’s vision to become a space for the next generation to feel empowered and to imagine their future; a space that will cement museums as places they belong and feel welcome as they grow up, regardless of their background. In such a short time the Young V&A’s global impact has been really incredible, demonstrating the potential of what museums can be for children around the world.”

Huge thanks

This win is testament to all our brilliant colleagues, funders, trustees and partners involved in making YV&A, indefatigable in their commitment, vision, determination, and generosity. To every person involved in creating this museum, heartfelt thanks. The current moment is a key one in which to galvanise our sector and our work, with a new government in power and a manifesto commitment to creative education – because museums are both stewards of the past AND sites to nurture the engaged, curious, adaptive citizens of tomorrow.