The William Morris Gallery, which reopened last year at the childhood home of the British Arts and Crafts pioneer following a £5 million overhaul, has been named Museum of the Year.

The parkland villa in Walthamstow, East London, took the £100,000 prize, awarded by the Art Fund to the institution which has demonstrated excellence and innovation over the previous year.

The Georgian house now incorporates touchscreens and interactive activities to illuminate Morris’s passion for philosophy and radical politics as well as his famous wallpaper designs.

Transformed from local gem to world-class attraction, the William Morris Gallery has been awarded the prestigious title of Museum of the Year for its major renovation and creative reinterpretation of the life and work of Morris – the revolutionary Victorian designer and social activist – for a diverse range of 21st century audiences.
 

Redeveloped gallery in Walthamstow, London, dedicated to Victorian artist was facing cuts and possible closure

A museum dedicated to the life and works of the Victorian designer, artist and ardent socialist William Morris has been named winner of the UK's largest arts prize.

The William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London, won the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year, triumphing over institutions that included the Kelvingrove in Glasgow, the Baltic in Gateshead and the Hepworth in Wakefield.

The William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London, has been named the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year 2013 following its £5m refurbishment. 

The £100,000 award was announced by Ian Hislop at a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum this evening and announced live on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. 

The £10,000 Clore Award for Learning has been given to the Hepworth Wakefield. 

The two museums were among 10 shortlisted organisations for this year’s award. 

The William Morris Gallery has been named the 2013 Museum of the Year, winning £100,000 from the Art Fund.

The William Morris Gallery in north-east London has won this year's £100,000 Art Fund prize for Museum of the Year following a £5m renovation.

The Walthamstow gallery was praised for its community outreach and for "setting the highest standards of curatorship".

A second prize, of £10,000, went to the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield for its "world-class" education programme.

The winners were announced by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop on Tuesday at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The recipients were revealed live on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.

PRS/GuM won the prize for best Permanent Exhibition for the William Morris Gallery in the 2013 Museums + Heritage Awards for Excellence, at a ceremony held at 8 Northumberland, London on 15th May 2013.

PRS have been appointed to design the Poplar Baths Leisure Centre and the Haileybury Youth Centre for Guildmore and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Tower Hamlets council have chosen Guildmore to transform historic Poplar Baths building into a brand new Leisure Centre, including 60 new flats.
The plan also includes the transformation of the existing Haileybury Youth centre at Dame Colet into a state of the art Youth Centre, where we will build a further 40 flats and a new youth centre.

On 2 April 2013 the William Morris Gallery was announced as one of the ten finalists battling it out for this prestigious award. The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013 is the UK’s largest arts prize, celebrating the very best museums and galleries, highlighting and rewarding the innovative and creative ways they bring objects and collections to life for the public.

Artist Jacqueline Poncelet has covered a monolithic substation in glossy, colourful patterns that reflect the local history and culture