Art Fund Prize Goes to the Lightbox

WOKING, England—The Lightbox art museum in Surrey county, England, has won the £100,000 Art Fund Prize, awarded annually to a museum for originality, imagination, and excellence, BBC News reports.

The Lightbox project was initiated in 1993 by a group of 70 residents of Woking who wanted to open a museum and art gallery in their town. They hired London Eye architects Marks Barfield to design the space, and through donations of money and family possessions from more than 10,000 people, the community created a permanent collection entitled "Woking's History."

The museum opened in September with an exhibit showing previously unseen material from Aardman Animation, the creators of Wallace and Gromit. It continues to house changing exhibitions each month, including contemporary art and loans from other museums.

"Woking may sound a slightly unlikely place for a brand new museum, but we were instantly impressed by the Lightbox," said jury chair Sue MacGregor.