2008 winner, The Lightbox, at night. © Peter Cook

Submissions for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries 2009 – the UK’s largest single arts prize – are being accepted from today, September 1 2008.

The coveted prize, which is open to all museums and galleries in the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, is intended to recognise and celebrate originality and excellence in museums and galleries and increase public appreciation and enjoyment of all they have to offer.

Since its inception in 2003, the prize has been awarded to a series of innovative museum and gallery projects. 2008’s winner was The Lightbox, Woking’s new community-backed museum and art gallery, which swayed the Art Fund Prize judging panel with a winning combination of innovative design and community involvement.

Happy Pallant House staff and friends take a bow at the Gulbenkian Museum Prize awards (now sponsored by the Art Fund) in 2007. © Jon Pratty / 24 Hour Museum

For the 2009 prize, a winner and a longlist of ten nominees will again be chosen by an independent panel of judges – to be announced later in 2008 - comprising a mix of museum and gallery experts, artists, academics, journalists and well-known public faces.

The longlist will be announced in February 2009, followed by the announcement of the short list of four in April 2009. The winner will be announced during an awards ceremony in June.

Previous winners of the prize include Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, which won in 2006 for its £8.6 million modern gallery extension and 2005’s winner, Brunel’s ss Great Britain, the world’s first great iron ocean liner, now based in Bristol.

In addition to a cheque for £100,000, the winning museum or gallery holds, for one year, the enamelled silver prize bowl, commissioned from the artist Vladimir Böhm.

The ss Great Britain - the winner in 2006 - is framed within a glass-topped dry-dock. © Jon Pratty / 24 Hour Museum

The Prize criteria remain broadly-drawn, enabling the judges to consider a wide range of project size and type. The winner will be the entry that, in the opinion of the judges:

· demonstrates originality, imagination and excellence
· extends public access and understanding of works of art and artefacts from any era and culture
· has the capacity to promote wider public appreciation of museums and galleries
· shows imaginative development, display and interpretation of museum and gallery collections
· demonstrates excellence of design, whether in exhibitions or buildings
· has clearly won the support and enthusiasm of its visitors
· is likely to provide a lasting legacy

The closing date for entries is Friday October 31 2008. For more information see www.artfundprize.org.uk.