Michael Portillo and fellow Art Fund Prize judges will visit the Polar Museum in Cambridge on April 12 as one of ten museums in the running for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize.

The Polar Museum is among ten museums and galleries to be long listed for the prestigious accolade. Other contenders include the V&A, Yorkshire Museum and Mostyn in Wales.

The Art Fund Prize 2011 rewards excellence and innovation in museums and galleries across the UK for a project completed or undertaken in 2010. The Polar Museum was selected for Promoting Britain's polar heritage: developing the Polar Museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute.

On Tuesday 12 April Michael Portillo will be accompanied by three fellow judges: artist Jeremy Deller, Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins and Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey. They will be given a tour around the museum by Heather Lane, Librarian and Keeper of Collections, and Museum Development Manager, Robert Smith.

Lane said: “We are looking forward to showing the judges what we have been able to achieve on a modest budget, not only in our renovated galleries but behind the scenes in the reserve collection and archives. We hope to be able to share some of the excitement that the whole team has felt in bringing the Polar Museum back to life.”

Michael Portillo announced the Art Fund Prize long list on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row on February 2nd. Between now and May, each museum and gallery will be visited by the judges before they meet to select the short list, which will be announced live on Front Row on 19 May.

The £100,000 Art Fund Prize will be awarded on 15 June at a ceremony at Tate Britain.

Following from the success of the public vote last year, an online poll for the 2011 Art Fund Prize is open. Members of the public are invited to vote at artfundprize.org.uk for their favourite long listed museum and tell the judges who they think should win. By doing so they could win an iPad.

The other institutions long listed for the Art Fund Prize 2011 are:

• British Museum, London, A History of the World

• Hertford Museum, Hertfordshire, Hertford Museum's Development Project

• Leighton House, London, Closer To Home: The Restoration and Reopening of Leighton House Museum

• Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, Refurbishment and extension of Mostyn gallery

• People's History Museum, Manchester, The new People's History Museum 2010

• The new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Alloway, Scotland

• Roman Baths Museum, Bath, Roman Baths Development

• V&A, London, Ceramics Study Galleries

• Yorkshire Museum, York, Letting in the Light - Revitalising the Yorkshire Museum for the 21st century
 

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