London has been awarded the accolade of Best Culture Destination at the inaugural Leading Culture Destinations annual awards.
London competed against cities including Paris, New York, Miami, Shanghai, Oslo and Berlin to win the award, which was presented during a ceremony at Jumeirah Carlton Tower, London on 10th October.
The Tate Modern collected three awards including Leading Culture Destination 2014, Leading Culture Destination for Exhibitions & Programming, and Leading Culture Destination for Digital Experience.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was named Leading Culture Destination for Architecture & Spatial Design while the Palais de Tokyo in Paris scooped the Destination for Eating & Drinking award.
Of the nine awards, six of the winners were selected based on the cultural recommendations of leaders and innovators in the creative industries, such as Matthew Clark, co-founder of United Visual Artists, curator Jerome Sans, jewellery designer Anabela Chan and former Royal Academy Exhibitions director Kathleen Soriano, who have given their views for the Leading Culture Destinations online travel guide, which ranks the world’s best in arts and culture destinations.
Three awards were chosen by a special jury consisting of key members of the creative and culture industries and representatives from Leading Culture Destinations.
The Leading Culture Destinations Awards is the first and only global awards ceremony, which celebrates the best not-for-profit arts institutions around the world. The awards aim to reflect the changing landscape of cultural institutions, which has seen them become not only places to see art but also places to learn, socialize, shop and, sometimes, even sleep.
Co-founder of Leading Culture Destinations, Florian Wupperfeld, commented: "We’re thrilled to present the inaugural Leading Culture Destinations Awards celebrating the best visual arts institutions around the world.
"Culture is one of the key drivers for tourism, and a revolution in the sector has seen museums become not just places of cultural pilgrimage but social hubs, places to dine, to read and to explore the arts through the new digital technologies - and sometimes even to drop your children off for a sleep over, a change which we celebrate with our awards.
"We hope the Leading Culture Destinations Awards will become a more helpful representation of what the world’s best arts institutions have to offer, recognising the sector’s innovators and leaders, and help more cultural travellers to discover them."
The accolade comes as London plays host to a blockbuster Autumn Season of cultural exhibitions and events. The stellar line-up of shows and exhibitions taking place include Turner at Tate Britain, Anselm Kiefer at the Royal Academy and Ming: 50 years that changed China, a major exhibition covering the Ming Dynasty reign at the British Museum featuring some of the most beautiful objects and paintings ever made in China.
