Turner Prize To Be Hosted In Hull In 2017 Culture Year

Turner Prize

The Turner Prize, one of the most important events in British art, will be hosted in Hull UK City of Culture in 2017,it was announced today.

The art exhibition and award will be staged at the city’s Ferens art gallery. It is the first event to be announced for Hull’s City of Culture year. The gallery will get a £4.5m facelift to bring it up to the required standards. The prize is now held outside London every other year.  Glasgow will play host this year. Martin Green Hull 2017 chief executive said the prize would ‘boost Hull’s image in the art world and attract more visitors to the city’. “You can only see it if you come to Hull and that’s what’s great about these major events. They act as a honeypot,” he said. “All those people who come will spend money here and stay, drink and shop here. So this is great world-class culture being used as a regenerative and economic boost to the city.”

Hull is the fifth city outsidethe capital to host the Turner Prize, following Liverpool, Gateshead, Londonderry and Glasgow. Nicholas Serota said: ‘Hull has a strong cultural heritage in the fields of literature, theatre, visual arts and contemporary music. Ferens has supported ARTISTROOMS displays on three occasions and its young people, in particular, have imaginatively promoted art to new audiences. Alternating the prize between venues in the UK and Tate Britain has given the prize a new dynamic and deepened our relationships with audiences outside London.’

Tate’s director of national and international programmes Judith Nesbitt said she was “confident that the Turner Prize is going to be an enormous success” in Hull.

“We know there’s a real appetite for art here,” she said. “This is a gem of an art gallery with a cracking collection.

“And it does revitalise and keep the prize really dynamic to have it as something that is on the move, literally.”

The exhibition and related events are expected to attract over a million visitors to Hull adding £60m to the city’s economy.

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