Derby’s pioneering Museum of Making has been revealed as one of the five finalists for the world’s largest museum prize.
Just a year after opening in the city’s historic Derby Silk Mill, following a multimillion-pound transformation, The Museum of Making (Derby Museums) has been shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022.
Standing on what is regarded as the site of the world’s first modern factory at the Silk Mill, the museum celebrates the city’s 300-year history of making, innovation, and technology.
It also looks to the future and aims to inspire creativity thanks to a state-of-the-art workshop, a dedicated space packed full of specialist equipment and skilled staff who are on hand to help visitors get creative.
Set within the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Museum has already picked up six industry awards, recognising the quality and craftsmanship in transforming the former mill into a world-class tourist destination.
Celebrating Derby’s creative and manufacturing history that helped make the city one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution, the Museum of Making has established itself as an inspirational new gateway to the ‘city of making’, as well as to the World Heritage Site.
Now it is in the running for one of the museum world’s most prestigious awards.
Art Fund annually shortlists five outstanding museums for the Museum of the Year prize. The 2022 edition champions organisations whose achievements tell the story of museums’ creativity and resilience, and particularly focuses on those engaging the next generation of audiences in innovative ways.
The other four shortlisted museums are: Horniman Museum and Gardens (London), People’s History Museum (Manchester), The Story Museum (Oxford) and Tŷ Pawb (Wrexham).
The winning museum will be announced at a ceremony at the Design Museum on 14 July and will receive £100,000. The other four shortlisted museums will each receive £15,000 in recognition of their achievements.
Bringing to life 300 years of manufacturing through the stories of the people and industries of Derby, the transformation has revealed the whole building to the public for the very first time, while the Museum now displays over 30,000 objects.
Among them are the Rolls-Royce Eagle Engine which helped power the first transatlantic flight more than 100 years ago, while the city’s connection to manufacturing is celebrated too with the display of a Toyota Corolla car. But emphasising the Museum’s innovation, the vehicle looks a little different, deconstructed and ‘floating’ above visitors’ heads as they enter the building.
Entry is free to the new Museum of Making (except for some temporary exhibitions).
To find out more about the Museum of Making, visit www.derbymuseums.org/museum-of-making
For tourist information about Derby as a destination, see www.visitderby.co.uk
