A new £10m museum dedicated to the history of the 250-year-old Wedgwood pottery company in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire has been awarded the 2009 Art Fund Prize for museum and galleries.

The Wedgwood Museum, which opened last year following a nine-year redevelopment of the site's former visitor centre, held off competition from three other shortlisted venues to pick up the £100,000 prize.

Designed by architects Hulme Upright Manning, the museum contains an internationally-renowned collection of ceramics, art and manuscripts, which documents British social, design and industrial history, as well as the local role of Josiah Wedgwood's pottery company.

Gaye Blake Roberts, director of the Wedgwood Museum Trust, said: "To have won is a great honour for The Wedgwood Museum Trust and Staffordshire, and we all feel very privileged that the new museum has received such acclaim and recognition.

"We also hope that the local economy will benefit from the national and international attention this award brings with it."

The three other shortlisted museums and galleries for the award included Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow; Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire; and Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham, London.

David Puttnam, chair of the judges, said: "The Wedgwood Museum brilliantly highlights the marriage of art, design, manufacturing and commerce; a marriage that resonates more today than at possibly any time in the intervening years. In every respect it fully meets our criteria of what a 21st century museum should aspire to be."

The Art Fund Prize, formerly known as the Gulbenkian Prize, is designed recognise the most innovative cultural schemes at venues across Britain.