V&A East Storehouse and Norwich Castle among finalists for museum of the year
The V&A East Storehouse, the National Gallery and an accessible castle in Norwich are among the contenders for this year’s Art Fund museum of the year award, the most prestigious UK prize in the sector.The annual prize offers the winner £120,000, with £20,000 going to each of the other finalists, who the Art Fund’s director, Jenny Waldman, said had all “innovated in different ways”.This year’s list is dominated by some of the biggest names in the cultural sector that have undergone big refurbishments or invested in significant new outposts, such as the V&A’s East Storehouse, which will be seen by many as a frontrunner.Based in the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, the space aims to reimagine what a storeroom can be, with partitions removed so visitors can see “and breathe the same air” as the objects.Waldman said the V&A Storehouse, which opened in spring 2025 at a cost of £65m, had broken the boundaries of what a store could be.
Also on the shortlist is the Box – a £46m museum and gallery that is described as the largest cultural centre in south-west England,It was described as a “clumsy” addition to the city’s Edwardian museum in 2020 by the Guardian’s architecture and design critic, Olly Wainwright, who said it looked “as if an out-of-town storage shed got blown here in a gale”,However, the Box has showed signs of success,A recent economic impact report said it had helped bring in £244m to the local economy, and holds more than 2m items,“It’s engaged in the national conversation, but is also very focused on the local community,” said Waldman, who also praised its current Beryl Cook exhibition.
She picked out the Fitzwilliam Museum’s invitation to artists – including Glenn Ligon – to “interrogate the museum and create work in conversation with the collection”, as an effort to look inward.Praised by the Guardian as “a model for what artists can do in such a setting”, the Cambridge museum’s All Over the Place exhibition saw Ligon insert his own works into a collection, which he revisited, reassessed and repositioned.Waldman said the National Gallery went the “extra mile in every direction” during its bicentenary year in 2025, which included a widely celebrated rehang, the reopening of the Sainbury Wing and a project led by Jeremy Deller that ventured to Derry, Dundee, Llandudno and Plymouth.Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery will be seen as an outside bet but has undergone a refurbishment that, its leadership says, makes it the most accessible castle in the country.“If you’re a wheelchair user and you want to go up to the ramparts of Norwich Castle, you can,” added Waldman.
“It’s opening up the past for a new generation.”Last year’s winner was the “joyous and immersive” Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, an open-air museum in County Durham where immersive exhibitions bring the 1940s and 50s to life.The winning museum will be announced on 25 June at a ceremony at the Cutty Sark in London.
London to host historic first team time trial for Tour de France Femmes in 2027
London will provide the backdrop for a landmark moment in cycling history as it hosts the first team time trial in the women’s Tour de France next year.The best riders in the women’s peloton will race against the clock as teams, on a central London circuit of approximately 18km, pass the Houses of Parliament, London Eye and Tower Bridge, culminating in a finish on the Mall.“The team time trial has always been one of the most exciting and spectacular formats in cycling, and we are very proud that the first one will take place in London,” the race director Marion Rousse said. “It’s a huge moment in the history of the race.”Although the men’s race visited London in 2007 and 2014, 2027 is the inaugural visit of the Tour de France Femmes to the capital, with the team time trial providing a showcase finale to three days of UK-based racing
Floods, baskets and Billie Jean King: how the rough and tumble WBL set the stage for the WNBA
It was the night before the 1980 Women’s Professional Basketball League draft in New York City and the Dallas Diamonds had the No 1 pick. But the team’s top brass was split. Coach Greg Williams wanted to take the 6ft 5in Danish star Inge Nissen, and the team’s GM Nancy Nichols prized Nancy Lieberman, the American point guard people called “Lady Magic”.“We argued for days about Nissen versus Lieberman,” Nichols tells the Guardian.Nichols remembers the hours after dinner that night; everyone had retired to their rooms
Jack Draper faces French Open fitness race as knee injury worries deepen
Jack Draper has been ruled out for at least another month as injuries continue to disrupt his hopes of establishing himself as one of the top players in the world.Draper has withdrawn from the Madrid Open this week and the subsequent Italian Open due to the aggravated knee tendon injury that forced him to retire from his opening match at the Barcelona Open last week. Although he will miss most of the clay-court season, Draper is still aiming to compete at Roland Garros, which begins in five weeks on 24 May. He is considering entering one of the tournaments scheduled a week before the French Open.“An aggravated tendon in my knee means I am not able to play in Madrid and Rome,” Draper said in a statement
LeBron James is 41. And he’s somehow still carrying his team in the playoffs
The Lakers star would have been expecting to play a supporting role as he burrows into his 40s. But injuries means he has assumed a familiar roleLeBron James must be so sick of this. If he wanted to experience being the best player on an otherwise thin team, he could simply remember the Cleveland Cavaliers’ run to the NBA finals in 2007. Or the 2015 NBA finals when his best teammates, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, suffered injuries. Or the 2018 season, which convinced SNL to make a spoof of James’ support staff
State of Origin coaches back Australian NRL takeover of England’s Super League
State of Origin coaches Billy Slater and Laurie Daley have backed the NRL’s pursuit of a stake in the Super League, arguing a strong northern hemisphere game is key to the future of rugby league.The NRL’s chief executive, Andrew Abdo, was in England last week exploring the investment opportunity that would involve governance reform in the UK and a potential shift back to a winter season to allow broadcasters to screen elite rugby league year-round.Slater, who coached the Maroons to an Origin series win in 2025, said the sport needed to improve its pathways across the globe to ensure standards remain high.“There’s definitely something over there in the English Super League, and I think [the NRL] can make that work,” he said.While Abdo has said opportunities with the Super League could help grow the value of the NRL’s next broadcast deal, Slater believed the main benefit was to help improve playing standards in Europe and in the NRL, which is expected to grow to 20 teams in coming years
Castleford’s shock win over Wigan shows NRL that Super League still has a lot to offer
The talks have started and the jockeying for position in the boardrooms has begun. In the coming weeks, we will find just how strong an offer Australia’s National Rugby League is prepared to make to invest in Super League and potentially transform the fortunes of the competition.There is a school of thought, perhaps perpetuated more by those in Australia than in Europe, that Super League is flailing and in desperate need of help. In terms of the financials there may be some merit in that, with wealthy club owners losing tens of millions between them each year. As business models go, it is hardly sustainable
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