ACS realises how difficult it is for recent graduates to focus on their art especially after leaving university. The ACS Studio Prize was founded to help.
Since ACS was established in 2006 as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, our commitment to the arts has assisted in supporting a great variety of educational projects and charities. The ACS Studio Prize is just one such example – since 2012, we have re-invested close to £200,000.
“The prize offers help to artists who have just finished art school and are facing the next stage in their careers. It seems to embody the values of ACS – understated, generous and fully supportive of the people who make our creative world – artists.” Tim Marlow, ACS Studio Prize 2017 judge
In past years, the Prize has regularly attracted over 500 applications from students and graduates throughout the UK and Europe. Alongside our Managing Director Lady Bridgeman CBE, we have enlisted the help of some of the UK’s most decisive artistic talent to decide upon the overall winner of each edition of the Prize.
In 2017, painter and sculptor Maggi Hambling CBE and Artistic Director of the Royal Academy Tim Marlow awarded the Prize to sculptor Marco Miehling. In 2018, painter Rebecca Harper received the Prize from artists Eileen Cooper OBE RA and Rob & Nick Carter. In 2019, Cathie Pilkington RA and Director & Curator of the Ingram Collection Jo Baring awarded painter Araminta Blue Wieloch the Prize. Multidisciplinary artist Dion Kitson won the Prize in 2020, awarded by renowned painter & author Celia Paul and pioneering contemporary artist Gavin Turk. In 2021, ACS member Paul Huxley RA and Bob and Roberta Smith OBE RA awarded the Prize to University of West England (UWE Bristol) graduate Dorcas Casey. The 2022 ACS Studio Prize, judged by the renowned artist and ACS member Flora Yukhnovich, founder and curator of the Palazzo Monti, Edoardo Monti and ACS Managing Director, Lady Bridgeman was awarded to Royal Drawing School post-graduate David Gardner.
The ACS Studio Prize is offered on a yearly basis, and more information on the previous editions can be found below. If you are interested in entering the prize, you can do so here.