Read the full prize rules
The 24 Hour Museum (24 HM) is pleased to announce its third annual Museums & Galleries Month Arts Writing Prize, in association with English Heritage.
May is Museums and Galleries Month (MGM), which means a whole host of special events will be held around the UK in celebration of our great cultural institutions. The best review or feature about an MGM 2005 event submitted to the 24HM will win a ‘Tour Through Time’ short break courtesy of English Heritage and £500 from the 24 Hour Museum. Tours Through Time is the English Heritage tour programme that takes you on a fascinating journey through some of the most significant moments in English history.
One runner up will receive a free one-day Tour Through Time for two, also courtesy of English Heritage.
24 HM welcomes entries from full or part-time journalism students; those who have recently completed journalistic training; and from 24 HM volunteer writers, past and present.
‘Objects of Desire: The Art of Collecting’ is this year’s MGM theme, so participants can expect to encounter the exquisitely beautiful, unusual, unique, old and sentimental in visits to museums and galleries up and down the country. In addition, museums will be marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and SeaBritain 2005, so writers have plenty of subject matter to choose from.
Entries will be judged by a panel including Maev Kennedy of the Guardian and writers will get the chance to see their work published on the site, which runs five news and five exhibition stories each week, updated daily. The site welcomes more than 400,000 visitors every month, making it one of the UK’s top cultural websites.
It is 24HM policy to work with student journalists wherever possible, and the network of student writers provide the site with a flow of fresh writing from all parts of the UK – an important boost for the small web team based in Brighton. In return the site offers volunteers as much support and feedback as possible as well as bylines.
Quin Parker won the MGM 2004 Arts Writing Prize, which was on the theme of travel, for his story of a trip up to Liverpool Museum. The piece titled ‘I’d Never Visited Liverpool Before’ was praised by a distinguished panel of judges, which included travel writer and presenter Dan Cruikshank and Simon Calder of The Independent.
For full details of the competition visit our website at www.24hourmuseum.org.uk or contact Jon Pratty on 01273 820052 or by email: editor@24hourmuseum.org.uk.
The closing date for entries is May 31 2005. Prize-winners will be announced in June.
