The Amsterdam-based World Press Photo organisation is moving from its office in the south of the city to a vacant building in the Westerpark gas works, thanks to a €1.2m donation from the Postcode Lottery organisation.

The new location, dubbed World Press Photo House, will be partly open to the public and include meeting spaces, educational activities, a shop and exhibition area.

‘We live in a time where visual literacy is more important than ever and the essential conditions of the freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press can not be taken for granted,’ said organisation director Lars Boering.

‘Opening a public place to engage our audience with year-round cultural and educational activities is a long-cherished ambition of ours,’ he said.

The organisation also intends to boost public knowledge of its Dutch roots, spokesman Jan Meddens said in an interview with the Financieele Dagblad. ‘Many people think of New York, Paris or London when they think of the World Press Photo, rather than Amsterdam,’ Meddens said.

The World Press Photo organisation travelling exhibition is now seen in 100 cities in 40 countries and attracts some four million visitors every year. ‘The impact is similar to that of the Oscars or the Nobel prizes,’ Meddens told the FD. ‘They are our brothers’.

This year’s winners will be announced on April 11. In total, almost 80,000 photos were submitted for the awards.

The winners will go on show at the Nieuwe Kerk as usual, but there will also be a two-day festival of photography at the Westergas site during the award weekend.