Apollo Awards 2015: Museum Opening of the Year Shortlist

The Shortlists
Acquisition of the Year | Book of the Year | Exhibition of the Year | Digital Innovation of the Year | Museum Opening of the Year

The Apollo Museum Opening of the Year Award recognises some of the most important new museum or renovation projects to be completed between Octobe 2014 and September 2015. The winner will be announced in the December issue of Apollo.

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow

Opened 12 June 2015

Owned by the Russian-born businesswoman and art collector Dasha Zhukova, Garage Museum offers five exhibition galleries, an auditorium, a cafe, and education spaces. Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the two-storey building – a former Soviet-era restaurant – had lain derelict for 20 years before being bought by Zhukova. Inaugural projects included interactive displays by Rirkrit Tiravanija and Yayoi Kusama. Click here for our original coverage.

Fondazione Prada, Milan

Opened 9 May 2015

What was once a distillery has been transformed by Rem Koolhaas’s architectural practice OMA into a thoroughly modern museum. The Fondazione Prada combines pre-existing buildings – including a four-storey tower now painted in gold leaf – with three new structures, giving it 11,000 sq m of exhibition space. The museum opened with the much-lauded ‘Serial Classic’, an exhibition of classical sculpture that was as original and bold as the building itself. Click here for our original coverage.

Waddesdon Bequest Gallery

British Museum, London
Opened 11 June 2015

The Waddesdon Bequest encompasses the remarkable collection of nearly 300 medieval and Renaissance treasures left to the British Museum by Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1898. The bequest carried with it one stipulation: that the objects be displayed in a room separate from other contents in the museum. This new gallery, designed by the architects Stanton Williams, successfully captures the intimacy of the New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor, where it was displayed until Ferdinand’s death. Click here for our original coverage.

The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Opened 1 May 2015

The Whitney’s move into its new downtown home designed by Renzo Piano is generally regarded as a triumph. The new building has around 50 per cent more gallery space than its predecessor, which allows it to show much more from its holdings of around 22,000 works. The extensive backstage facilities include a large conservation lab and a study centre for works on paper. Click here for our original coverage.

The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Opened 14 February 2015

Following a £15 million redevelopment by London-based architects MUMA, the Whitworth shed its provincial image to emerge as a gallery that fully opens up to its surroundings, with expanded exhibition spaces and a new sculpture garden and orchard. Its programme launched with an acclaimed solo show by Cornelia Parker, which included her daring signature piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), on loan from Tate. Click here for our original coverage.