Congratulations to three London museums: the British Museum, Leighton House and the Victoria and Albert Museum, who are all on the list hoping to win the UK’s largest arts prize – the Art Fund Prize 2011.

The Art Fund Prize rewards excellence and innovation in museums and galleries in the UK for a particular project completed or undertaken in 2010. Following a short list of four museums (announced on 19 May), the £100,000 cash prize will be awarded to the “Museum of the Year” at a ceremony on 15 June.

The 10 UK museums have been long listed for the following projects:

• 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
• Polar Museum, University of Cambridge, Promoting Britain’s Polar Heritage
• 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

While the final decision will be made by an expert panel of judges, you’re invited to get involved in the debate as to who should win too. Visit www.artfundprize.org.uk and tell the judges which is your favourite museum. You can also keep up-to-date with the debate on twitter @artfundprize.

Who do you think should win? Let us know in the comments below!

A remarkable array of work from the Aesthetic Movement will be exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London this spring, including work from some of the most celebrated artists of the late 19th-century.

I was lucky enough to attend the press launch today at the magnificent Leighton House Museum, a fitting venue filled with aesthetic artefacts in the house of one of the period’s greatest artists, Frederic Lord Leighton.

The aesthetic movement centres on “art as art’s sake”, in other words: creating art for its beauty, not for symbolism or anecdotes.

Stephen Calloway, the V&A curator explained:

“The Aesthetic Movement was born out of a cacophony of conflicting ideas, theories and experiments in art. Perhaps the one clear message was that people hoped to escape from what was seen to be the ugliness and increasing commerciality of the 1860s to 1870s.”

He added: “The artists and designers that we feature in the exhibition all tried in their various ways to completely revolutionise the fields in which they work – whether it’s painting, sculpture or the creation of furniture and the decoration of houses.”

The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 will include work by famous artists and designers such as William Morris, James McNeill Whistler, Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as Oscar Wilde – a great conveyor of the Aesthetic Movement.

Among the 250 pieces on display will be a peacock frieze on display for the first time and the only known examples of E W Godwin’s ceramics.

The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 at the V&A from 2 April until 17 July 2011