Firstsite becomes Museum of the Year 2021

Colchester’s Firstsite has been announced as Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021 and presented with a £100,000 prize – the largest museum prize in the world.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Firstsite is a contemporary arts organisation showing a diverse mix of historic, modern and contemporary art from around the world. It has built a strong, critical reputation nurturing long and deep relationships with artists and the local community. Throughout the pandemic, director Sally Shaw MBE and her team mobilised at speed to support local people, lending the building to neighbouring charity, Community 360 to run a food bank. Within days of lockdown, Firstsite created activity packs which went on to feature over fifty artists and were downloaded by over 92,000 households.