From Shakespeare’s lost plays to the world’s oldest horse: the bumper Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024 quiz

1. 

   Which sitter has the most portraits in the National Portrait Gallery collection?

   1. Queen Elizabeth II

   2. Winston Churchill

   3. Lord Nelson

   4. Queen Victoria

2. 

   During the first world war, the National Portrait Gallery’s archive served as a what?

   1. Nightclub

   2. Radio station

   3. Hospital

   4. Photography studio

3. 

   How many women are featured in the National Portrait Gallery’s mural Work in Progress by Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake?

   1. 60

   2. 100

   3. 130

   4. 200

4. 

   Which 60s pop icon displayed their personal photography in an exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery last year?

   1. Dusty Springfield

   2. Cilla Black

   3. David Bowie

   4. Paul McCartney

5. 

   Self by Marc Quinn is an artwork on display in Room 32 of the National Portrait Gallery – what is it made of?

   1. Wood

   2. Blood

   3. Silicone

   4. Compost

6. 

   The Young V&A displays The Little Nobody children's chair, designed by Komplot Design in 2008 and manufactured by Hay. This smaller version has proven very popular with children and families, but why was the full size adult version originally designed?

   1. To provide safe seating for Danish prisons that couldn't be used as a weapon

   2. To be light enough to be carried with one hand

   3. To not make marks when dragged along the floor

   4. To be biodegradable

7. 

   Also on display at the Young V&A is this Joey puppet, designed by Handspring Puppet Company for the National Theatre production of War Horse in 2009. How many puppeteers did it take to bring Joey to life?

   1. 1

   2. 2

   3. 3

   4. 4

8. 

   The Cozy Coupe – on display at the Young V&A – is one of the most popular and iconic children's toy designs of the last 50 years. But what inspired Jim Marjol to make a foot-powered car?

   1. Scooting around on his office chair

   2. He was unable to bend his knees

   3. He left his bike helmet at home

   4. A love of the Wacky Races cartoon

9. 

   What inspired Joel Glickman to design the K'Nex construction system, on display at the Young V&A?

   1. A desire to colour code everything

   2. A love of wireframe models in videogames

   3. Dropping an armful of pencils into a pile of Blu-Tack

   4. Fiddling with straws while at a wedding

10. 

    This 17th-century doll's house from Germany is in the Young V&A. It opens up to reveal a small wooden unicorn head hanging over the door. What profession does this suggest the owner of the doll's house was?

    1. A butcher

    2. A bookbinder

    3. A lawyer

    4. An apothecary

11. 

    Manchester Museum is well known for the Japanese Spider Crab in its front window. What do Japanese spider crabs usually eat?

    1. Deep sea fish

    2. Decaying sea creatures

    3. Smaller crabs

    4. Mancunians

12. 

    Manchester Museum works to conserve critically endangered species such as the variable harlequin frog in its Vivarium. They live alongside noisy waterfalls, and need to use more than their voices to communicate. What do they use?

    1. Blinking

    2. Jumping

    3. Waving

    4. Changing colour

13. 

    Manchester Museum also works to conserve the strawberry poison-dart frog in its Vivarium. What does its Latin name Oophaga pumilio mean?

    1. Little egg eater

    2. Little egg carrier

    3. Little egg layer

    4. Little egg monster

14. 

    Manchester Museum displays the skull of a horse named Old Billy, reputedly the oldest horse that ever lived. He was born in 1760, how old was he when he died?

    1. 47

    2. 50

    3. 58

    4. 62

15. 

    Manchester Museum holds the fourth largest collection of molluscs in the UK. How many individual shells are in the collection?

    1. 150,000

    2. 300,000

    3. 750,000

    4. 900,000

16. 

    Dundee Contemporary Art's cinema shows films on a range of formats, from digital to physical film, including 35mm, 16mm and even 8mm. These physical film ‘prints’ consist of many metres of individual film frames, often on multiple reels. The 35mm print of the new Yorgos Lanthimos film Kinds of Kindness, which DCA is showing in July, contains how many miles of film?

    1. 1.1 miles 

    2. 2.8 miles 

    3. 4 miles 

    4. 6.2 miles

17. 

    Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle’s exhibition, How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth, filled Dundee Contemporary Art's galleries in 2019. The exhibition featured a suite of laser-engraved woodblock prints, Secreting Myths, created in DCA Print Studio and available to purchase as limited editions. Which creatures did Whittle collaborate with to create these prints? 

    1. Green lizards 

    2. Sea turtles 

    3. Snails 

    4. Whistling frogs

18. 

    Dundee Contemporary Art’s current exhibition, Turn Me Into a Flower, features the work of Iraq-born, Toronto-based artist Sukaina Kubba. The first work the visitor encounters in the exhibition is a large piece of tracing paper with a drawing on it. The drawing is a tracing of a Senneh rug produced in Iran, which Kubba encountered by chance during a residency in the Atacama Desert in Chile after being fascinated with these rugs for years. This tracing was the starting point for the series Corners of Your Sky, which replicates the original design in different materials, including latex, rubber and PLA filament. How long did it take Kubba to create the first tracing?

    1. Three days

    2. Five days

    3. Ten days

    4. Two weeks

19. 

    Dundee Contemporary Art's Print Studio teaches many different courses, from traditional techniques like letterpress and wood engraving to how to use new technology such as MiScreen Digital Screen Makers and laser cutters. Mokulito, one of the newer courses on offer, is a form of printmaking developed in Japan in the 1970s. What does the name translate to?

    1. Wood Printing

    2. Wood Art

    3. Wood Etching

    4. Wood Lithography

20. 

    Dundee Contemporary Art's Print Studio houses a wide range of equipment, from traditional printing presses and vintage letterpress sets to laser cutters and 3D printers. One of the oldest pieces of kit in the studio, still in use today, is the Britannia Press. These presses were first manufactured by B Porter of Leeds, and DCA has one of the earliest models (model No 491). Fellow Museum of the Year nominee Craven Museum, Skipton also hold one in their collection. What decade was the press made in?

    1. 1800s

    2. 1830s

    3. 1880s

    4. 1900s

21. 

    One of Craven Museum's star objects is a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio. Which of these plays would have been lost if not for the production of the First Folio?

    1. Macbeth

    2. Romeo and Juliet

    3. Hamlet

    4. The Merry Wives of Windsor

22. 

    Craven Museum is based in Skipton, Yorkshire. Being close to the border with Lancashire, the market town was famous for its cotton production, but which Skipton company produced the popular Sylko brand?

    1. J&P Coats

    2. Dewhurst's

    3. Bagley & Wright's

    4. Ermen & Roby

23. 

    Another highlight of the Craven Museum collection is a Roman intaglio jewel made from amethyst. It is thought to depict a scene from The Odyssey, but to whom is Odysseus offering his cup of wine?

    1. Penelope's suitors

    2. Circe

    3. The cyclops

    4. Telemachus

24. 

    The Calendar Girls were all members of the Women's Institute in which Craven village?

    1. Rylstone

    2. Kettlewell

    3. Burnsall

    4. Grassington

25. 

    Craven Museum’s herbarium collection holds many notable specimens, but what is the name of this rare species?

    1. Frog Orchid

    2. Lady's Slipper Orchid

    3. Spider Orchid

    4. Monkey Orchid

Solutions

1:A - The National Portrait Gallery currently holds 973 portraits of the late Queen – the earliest dating from her birth in 1926. Elizabeth II’s likeness is represented across paintings, photographs, sculpture, currency and even novelty items, 2:A - During the first world war, the gallery’s archive opened as Ciro’s, a nightclub renowned for its jazz performances. During zeppelin bombings, patrons would even use the gallery’s basement as shelter, 3:C - The eight by 28ft, seven-mural panel depicts 130 inspiring historical and contemporary women, from the ancient warrior queen Boudicca to Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, 4:D - Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm reopened the NPG in June 2023. The exhibition included more than 250 of the Beatle’s personal photos from the band’s first trip to the US, 5:B - Quinn created Self using his own blood, frozen into a mould of his head. The sculpture is presented in a specially designed freezer among the gallery’s display of death masks in the Weston Wing, 6:A - The chair is made by placing a felted fabric sheet made from recycled plastic bottles into a heated mould , 7:C - This life-sized horse puppet performed at the National Theatre, where puppeteers made him jump and gallop across the stage , 8:A - The Cozy Coupe is a ride-in car made from polypropylene, with steering wheel, opening door and working horn. It was first made in Ohio for Little Tykes in 1979 , 9:D - The construction kit consists of various coloured plastic pieces which can be combined with wheels to make a variety of models, 10:D - The Nuremberg House doll's house was made in 1673 in Nuremberg, Germany, 11:B, 12:C, 13:A, 14:D, 15:C, 16:B, 17:C, 18:C, 19:D, 20:B, 21:A, 22:B, 23:C, 24:A, 25:B

Scores

1. 20 and above.

   Wow, you're a star curator!

2. 16 and above.

   Good work – your knowledge of extremely niche museum facts is commendable

3. 0 and above.

   Oh well, maybe it's time to visit some more museums!

4. 10 and above.

   Not bad - your niche museum knowledge is getting there

• The Art Fund award for Museum of the Year is announced on 10 July