The Artist Prize

The Artist Prize is sponsored by Firstsite. The Artist Prize is a new open art prize awarded to a single UK-based artist, alongside a solo exhibition at Firstsite in 2028. It celebrates artists from across the UK and is judged by curators from arts organisations across the country.

The Artist Prize – a New UK-Wide Open Submission Prize for Artists - Firstsite The Artist Prize is now open for entries! Submit your work for a chance to win £30,000 cash and a solo show here at Firstsite in 2028! Open to any artist over 18 in the UK, working in any medium.

Entry fees start from £10. Standard entry ends Thu 2 Jul The Artist Prize – a New UK-Wide Open Submission Prize for Artists The Artist Prize – a New UK-Wide Open Submission Prize for Artists Firstsite is delighted to announce that, alongside co-founders Zealous , we are launching The Artist Prize — a major new UK-wide open submission prize designed to celebrate and support artists across the country.

The prize aims to widen access to major exhibition opportunities and bring a broader range of artists into view, regardless of background, training or representation. Open to artists at all stages of their career and working in any medium, The Artist Prize will award one artist £30,000 alongside a solo exhibition at Firstsite, selected through an open application process.

Entrants will have their work seen by a panel of 80 judges drawn from arts organisations across the UK. This panel will select a longlist of 200 artists, to be announced in August 2026. A final selection panel including many well-known names will then select 20 shortlisted artists and the eventual winner in March 2027.

The panel includes… Jeremy Deller — Artist (Turner Prize winner, 2004) Ryan Gander — Artist (conceptual; Lisson Gallery) Maria Balshaw – former Director of Tate Ekow Eshun — Curator / Writer Louisa Buck — Contemporary Art Correspondent (The Art Newspaper) Sook-Kyung Lee — Director (The Whitworth) Mariam Zulfiqar — Director (Artangel) Sally Shaw MBE — Director (Firstsite) Katrina Brown — Director (Common Guild) Joe Hill — Director (Yorkshire Sculpture Park) Julie Lomax — CEO (a-n, The Artists Information Company) Alayo Akinkugbe — Art historian / curator (author “A Black History of Art”) Pita Arreola — Digital Curator / Writer (arebyte / author “Digital Art: 1960s–Now”) Tabish Khan — Art Critic (Londonist, FAD) The shortlisted artists will be shown together at Firstsite in January 2027, with the full longlist of works published on The Artist Prize website.

The final selection panel will also choose the overall winner. The selection process has been designed to be as accessible as possible in contrast to many existing prize models, creating new opportunities for artists to have their work seen by curators, directors and arts professionals from across the UK. The Artist Prize is co-founded by Guy Armitage and Sally Shaw MBE.

Guy is Founder of Zealous, the submissions management platform supporting foundations, corporations, agencies and arts organisations across the cultural sector, with clients ranging from the Saatchi Gallery to the British Library. Sally Shaw MBE is Director of Firstsite, which won Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021.

Guy Armitage, Founder of Zealous, said: “There are tens of thousands of working artists across the UK whose work has never been seen by a curator. Not because it isn’t good enough but because nobody gave them a door to knock on.

The Artist Prize is a distinctive platform for artists across the UK to be included in a pioneering new initiative aimed at empowering those whose practice remains largely unseen and spotlighting undiscovered talent. We want to inspire by providing an accessible route to an artistic community of judges from arts organisations across the UK.

The artworks submitted for consideration will be assessed on criteria that will include how effectively the artist has realised their work, the depth and clarity of the artistic idea and the work’s power and significance, ultimately leading to an exhibition of their work and a significant award of £30,000.

We believe that there is an incredible pool of talent in the UK whose potential remains untapped and we are thrilled to launch the application process, which will remain open until 7 July 2026. Recognition isn’t a reliable measure of talent. The Artist Prize hopes to address that.

” Sally Shaw MBE, Director of Firstsite, said: “The Artist Prize will create a pathway for artists to show in a major gallery, perhaps for the first time, and be part of a national conversation about what’s happening in contemporary art right now.

The shortlist exhibition will bring together twenty artists working across very different approaches and ideas — a show that feels alive and immediate, reflecting the range of what artists across the UK are making today, and the ideas and issues that are shaping contemporary life. It’s impossible to know exactly what the exhibition will look like at this stage, and that uncertainty is part of what makes it so exciting.

For audiences, it’s a chance to encounter a wide range of new artists from across the UK. And for one of those artists, it leads to a solo exhibition with us, a real opportunity to develop their practice further. ” Applications are open from 19 May to 7 July 2026 via The Artist Prize website.

The prize is open to artists over 18 years of age, at any stage of their career, including individuals and collectives. Entries are encouraged across all disciplines, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, moving image, installation, digital and performance, alongside practices and combinations of processes that may not fit within traditional categories. Artists can submit as many artworks as they would like.

There is an early bird fee of £10 per entry, with late submissions beginning at £18 per entry. In recognition that any fee can be a barrier to access, sponsored opportunities will also be available on a first come, first served basis. I'd like to hear about...

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