Margate’s Turner Contemporary competing to be crowned England’s National Treasure
The hunt is on to discover England’s most popular National Lottery funded project of the last 20 years and Margate’s Turner Contemporary art gallery has been selected to compete for the honour.
The National Lottery has launched the search as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations this year. The ‘What’s Your National Treasure’ campaign asks people to visit https://www.facebook.com/LotteryGoodCauses to choose the best from a range of iconic venues, landmarks and facilities that are vying for the title of National Treasure.
The Turner Contemporary gallery, which opened in April 2011, was selected for inclusion after benefiting from more than £4 million in National Lottery funding.
Victoria Pomery, director from Turner Contemporary, said: “It is a tremendous honour that our work has been recognised when so many projects have been funded by The National Lottery. We’re urging our supporters to vote for us; we’d love to be crowned the nation’s best National Lottery project!”
As well as voting for England’s favourite place, the public are also being asked to vote for the celebrity who is most deserving of the title. With 12 projects and 5 celebrities to choose from in England, the competition is set to be fierce.
Vicki Kennedy, director of the National Lottery Good Causes said: “This is a fun way for people to show their backing for the projects they care most about and also gives us a great chance to celebrate the massive impact National Lottery players have had. England is packed full of National Treasures and we’re proud that National Lottery funding has been able to benefit so many of them. It will no doubt be tricky for people to pick just one as their favourite!”
The projects competing in England are: Beamish Museum (County Durham), Eden Project (Cornwall), The Hepworth (Wakefield), The Lowry (Manchester), Manchester SportCity, The Mary Rose Museum (Portsmouth), The Museum of Liverpool, National Memorial Arboretum (nr Lichfield), National Space Centre (Leicester), Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (London), Turner Contemporary (Margate), Wembley Stadium (London).
A winning face and place for England, along with those from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be announced from the full list of 68 later this year.
Votes can be cast on https://www.facebook.com/LotteryGoodCauses from 9am on Monday 19th May until midnight on Tuesday 27th May. People taking part in the survey will be able to share their participation and will also have a chance to win one of five iPad Airs.
