Two Sussex museums are to compete for the richest arts prize in Britain.

They are nominated for the first Gulbenkian Prize, which aims to do for museums and galleries what the Booker Prize did for books and the Turner Prize for art.

The £100,000 award, worth almost £40,000 more than any other on the arts circuit, has attracted interest from museums the length and breadth of Britain, all hoping to be judged to have come up with the most innovative and inspiring idea of 2002.

Of more than 100 projects nominated, just 12 have been selected to go forward for the Prize - including two from Sussex.

The Brighton Museum and Art Gallery redevelopment and the Downland Gridshell at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, near Chichester, are among the chosen few.

Public enthusiasm for the nominated projects will play a key part in the judging so the Brighton museum could be among the favourites.

Visitor numbers there have soared since it reopened last May - 146,000 in the first six months - double the number for the six months before its closure. That followed a two-year £10 million National Lottery-backed refurbishment, with new displays, including galleries showcasing fashion and 20th Century art.

Chair of the council's culture committee, councillor Andy Durr, said: "It shows we are among the top innovators in making history and culture accessible to everyone.

"This is recognition of the sheer quality of the new museum and the people who designed it and who run it.

"Winning the prize would enable us to make great facilities even better."

The £1.6 million Downland Gridshell project is the first of its kind in the country and has already won awards for architectural excellence.

Housing exhibits dedicated to the study of building conservation, the building's roof is also a testament to architectural and building techniques of the early 21st Century.

Gail Kittle, operations director of the project which has been enthralling visitors since June, said: "Whether we make it all the way or not, we're thrilled with the compliment this shows to our project and the confidence in it.

"It's a substantial amount of money, which would really change life considerably for a museum of our size.

"We have a lot of projects we would like to undertake to make the visiting experience even better but, at the moment, we can only do them over time."

Amongst the competition are large projects like the Imperial War Museum of the North in Manchester, its neighbour the Manchester Art Gallery and the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in London.

Other nominees are more modest, including a street corner archive in Rotherham and a temporary local family history exhibition in Cornwall.

Also nominated is the project to preserve and redisplay the Discovery, in which Captain Scott sailed to the Antarctic, now docked in Dundee. A shortlist will be announced in March and the winner revealed in May.