The Prize

ACS is excited to announce that the tenth iteration of the ACS Studio Prize is now open, offering a recent graduate the chance to win £6,000 to contribute to the cost of an artist’s studio in a UK city of their choice.

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Studio Prize will be judged by art dealer and historian Philip Mould OBE, artist and Director of the Lucian Freud Archive David Dawson, Director of the National Gallery Sir Gabriele Finaldi and the Chairman of ACS, Viscountess Bridgeman CBE.

For the fourth year, ACS has partnered with Gurr Johns International, a global independent art advisory and appraisal group, to offer the finalists the opportunity to take part in a group exhibition at Gurr Johns. The exhibition will take place in their St James’s first-floor gallery week in mid-September 2026.

The Studio Prize was established after a number of our members’ spoke of the economic challenges they faced when starting their artistic careers. ACS realises how difficult it is to focus on your art, especially after leaving university. The ACS Studio Prize was founded to help.

If you are a national of the UK, EEA, Australia or New Zealand and are an undergraduate or postgraduate university student on an accredited art course who is about to graduate, or if you have graduated from a university accredited art course within the last four years, and you work in pictures, collage, painting, sculpture, tapestry, ceramics, glassware or photography, then you are eligible to apply for the prize.

Who we are

ACS was formed in 2006 as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company to administer Artist’s Resale Right and copyright on behalf of our members. Since 2006 our membership has grown to nearly 2,000 artists and artists’ estates.

Our members include well known painters such as Cecily Brown, Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, Paula Rego, Lucian Freud and Stanley Spencer. Urban artists such as Mr Doodle and Bambi have also chosen ACS to administer their royalties, as have multidisciplinary artists including Michael Craig-Martin, Mat Collishaw and Franz West. Equally, ceramicists and sculptors such as Lucie Rie, Lynn Chadwick, Emily Young, Barbara Hepworth, and Edmund de Waal have entrusted ACS to administer ARR on their behalf.

As a Community Interest Company ACS operates solely for the benefit of our member artists. This means that any surplus income is locked into the company and used for the benefit of our member artists and the artistic community.

ACS is proud to fund bursaries for art students at leading institutions, whilst sponsoring a number of art prizes and charities. The Artists’ Collecting Society Studio Prize is just one such example.

How to enter

Entry to the 2026 ACS Studio Prize is now closed.

For more information about ACS and what we do, please visit the About Us page or email one of the ACS team.

Who we support