Record number of visitors for Hull art gallery

The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull hosted the Turner Prize in 2017

A record number of people visited Hull's Ferens art gallery last year, according to figures from the city council.

The authority said the 519,000 visits was the highest in the gallery's 90-year history.

It hosted the Turner Prize and other exhibitions as part of the year-long UK City of Culture arts festival.

In 2014, 140,000 people visited the gallery, before it closed the following year for a £5.2m renovation.

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Labour councillor Terry Geraghty said the visitor numbers had "exceeded all our expectations".

"We hope this special year has raised the profile of the gallery locally, regionally and nationally and we look forward to an exciting 2018, with more high profile exhibitions and installations taking place and a strong learning programme for Hull's young people," he said.

Lubaina Himid won the £25,000 Turner Prize in December

The council added that the Turner Prize exhibition was the second most popular one held outside of London, with more than 116,0000 visitors between September and December.

The £25,000 arts prize was won by Preston-based Lubaina Himid for her work addressing racial politics and the legacy of slavery.

As well as the Turner Prize, the Ferens hosted work by Francis Bacon, Rembrandt and and Lucian Freud as well as a specially commissioned piece by Spencer Tunick, who photographed 3,200 naked people at sites around the city for a project titled Sea of Hull.

More than 3,000 people took part in Spencer Tunick's Sea of Hull commission