The Alternative Miss World is in Helen Fielding's Bridge Jones's Diary

The Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture at Berriew, near Welshpool in Montgomeryshire, says it needs an extra �28,000 in grants to stay open.

A request for extra funding from Powys Council was rejected on Tuesday.

The only museum in Europe dedicated to a living artist, its collection includes sculptures, jewellery and Alternative Miss World memorabilia created by Andrew Logan over the last four decades.

The artist launched the Alternative Miss World - a surrealist art event based on Crufts Dog Show - in 1972 and the event has grown in stature, even gaining a mention in Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary.

Last year the museum which opened in 1991 received �88,000 in grants to fund jobs for the director and education access officer and to pay for workshops and other events.

Because we haven't had matched funding from other groups we are reaching crisis point and we are in danger of closing Anne Collins, museum director

This money was for a two-year scheme that costs �116,000.

But with a shortfall of nearly �30,000 the museum's future is now under threat said director, Anne Collins.

"We only charge people �2 to come into the museum so our income is dependent on grant funding," she said.

"At the moment we've hit a cash flow crisis because we can't sustain this shortfall in the long term.

"We desperately need to find �28,000 to sustain us until next September when we hope to get more funding from the Arts Council of Wales.

The museum was developed from two squash courts

"Because we haven't had matched funding from other groups we are reaching crisis point and we are in danger of closing."

The museum now gets about 4,000 visitors a year including school groups from across the country who study the sculptor's art at GCSE.

"We promote the meaning of art for the benefit of all and provide an environment that inspires people to create themselves," said Mrs Collins.

A Powys Council report recommending refusal of the funding bid said "the authority's art strategy is not quite at a stage whereby priorities for grant funding of such facilities has been identified".

Andrew Logan launched the first Alternative Miss World contest in 1972. The 11th themed event is due to be held in Brighton in 2004.

The 1995 event gets a mention in the novel Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, who was one of the judges at the event.

"Andrew has always loved Montgomeryshire since his first visit here in the 1960s and built the museum from squash courts he bought in 1988," said Mrs Collins.