28 June 2016

The Art Fund have released a photograph by the well-known British portrait and fashion photography Rankin of some of the York Art Gallery team behind its £8 million development.

The gallery will find out on July 6 if it is the winner of the Art Fund Museum of the Year and the £100,000 prize at a ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London. The award will be presented by the Duchess of Cambridge.

York Art gallery is one of only five museums shortlisted for the most prestigious museum award, the others being the V&A in London, the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, in London, Jupiter Artland, near Edinburgh and the Arnolfini in Bristol.

Speaking about the commission Rankin said:

“It has been a tremendous experience to work on this project with the Art Fund and museums across the UK. My approach has been to focus on the people behind the scenes, those, frequently unrecognised, that make museums what they are rather than just the obvious people at the top”.

Rankin is one of the country’s most famous photographers who has taken pictures of many of the world’s most famous people. His work includes portraits of Daniel Craig, Pharrell Williams, Kate Moss and The Rolling Stones.

As part of his commitment to the Museum of the Year project, Rankin has also judged the public photography competition organised by the Art Fund, celebrating the five shortlisted museums. The shortlist of photographs of each of the five museums will be announced by Rankin on Wednesday 15 June, ahead of the public vote to choose the winner.

To vote for the York Art Gallery picture, by Adele Karmazyn, please click here (voting closes June 29).

York Art gallery reopened in August last year after an £8 million development. It has already won several awards, including the Attraction of the Year (Over 50,000 visitors) at the York Tourism Awards, two York Design Awards, three RIBA Yorkshire Awards, as well as being shortlisted in the national RIBA Awards.