Plymouth’s the Box wins 2026 Art Fund museum of the year award

The Box in Plymouth has won the prestigious Art Fund museum of the year award, the largest such prize in the world, for its “ambitious and welcoming approach”. Awarding it the £120,000 prize, judges called the Box “a revelation in so many ways” and “a true jewel in the crown of the south-west”. The Box is a museum, gallery and archive that tells the story of Plymouth through its collections of more than 2m artworks, objects and archival materials. Since opening in 2020, it has welcomed more than 1.3 million visitors and, according to judges, has become “a leading example of what a civic museum can achieve”. It has generated more than £100m in health and wellbeing benefits, and boosted Plymouth’s economy by £244m, according to a report last year, and has engaged with 89% of the city’s schools. The Box was described at the ceremony as a museum ‘that genuinely belongs to the people it serves’. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian The prize was presented on Thursday night to Victoria Pomery, the chief executive of the Box, by the broadcaster June Sarpong, one of the judges, at a ceremony onboard the Cutty Sark, Royal Museums Greenwich, in London. “What stood out so strongly with the Box was the sense of pride and connection it has created across Plymouth,” Sarpong said. “From local groups such as the Windrush community to its partnerships with the university, it is a museum that genuinely belongs to the people it serves. …