Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), Wakefield, UK, has taken home a £100,000

prize from The Art Fund after being announced the UK Museum of the Year by Art Fund – the national fundraising charity for art.

YSP beat several other top museums to the prize, with the shortlist including; Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft in East Sussex, Hayward Gallery in London, The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich and the Tate Britain, London.

2013 was an incredibly busy year for YSP, with more than 350,000 visitors coming to take a look at one of Britain’s largest open air museums. High profile artists such as Yinka Shonibare MBE, Amar Kanwar and Hans Josephsohn have exhibited work at the park over the last year, helping to draw in large visitor numbers.

Started in 1977 by Peter Murray, now YSP’s executive director, the collection began as a small set of sculptures in the 200 hectares (500 acres) grounds of Bretton Hall College.

The judges commented that 2013 was the culmination of 40-year journey; Stephen Deuchar, chair of the judges, said that YSP was “A perfect fusion of art and landscape, Yorkshire Sculpture Park has gone from modest beginnings to one of the finest outdoor museums one might ever imagine.”

Museum of the year finalists announced