ACS takes its CIC status very seriously. At the heart of what we do, and the Artist’s Resale Right, is the idea that artists and their estates should benefit from the increasing value of their work. This underlying principle is one of the reasons that ACS was founded as a CIC, which means that any surplus income is locked into the company and used for the benefit of its member artists and the artistic community – with a particular emphasis on education, rehabilitation and younger, emerging artists.

ACS supports a wide range of artistic causes, including prizes, charities and bursaries for Fine Art students at higher education institutions. Since our foundation in 2006, we have offered donations to charities, such as the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution (AGBI) and the Koestler Arts, and sponsored prizes, including the Young Masters Art Prize and the National Open Art Competition’s Visitors’ Choice Award, London.

Since 2017, we have also offered the ACS Studio Prize annually, which provides a recent graduate with £6,000 to contribute towards the cost of a studio space. In addition, we have delivered talks on intellectual property at universities and galleries throughout the United Kingdom, and we have established several artist residencies and gifted many prizes and bursaries at universities.

You can read about some of the many prizes and bursaries we have offered since 2012 below:

“The ACS Studio Prize is establishing itself as one of the most significant national awards for practising visual artists at early career stage” Cathie Pilkington RA

The annual ACS Studio Prize offers a recent graduate £6,000 to contribute towards the cost an artist’s studio in a UK city of their choice. It recognises the struggle artists face at the beginning of their careers securing a studio space. The number of entries to the prize has increased year on year and past winners include sculptor Marco Miehling in 2017, painter Rebecca Harper in 2018 and painter Araminta Blue Wieloch in 2019.

Since 2016, ACS has partnered with the City & Guilds of London Art School and the University of Edinburgh to offer a graduating MA Fine Art student from each university a fully-funded 12-month residency at a studio of their choice. Past winners include Flora Yukhnovich, Alex Weir, Eleanor McCullough in 2017, Natanya Barrett and Sophia Pauley in 2018 and Eleanor Watson and Alex Hayward in 2019.

2019 marks the first time that ACS has partnered with Palazzo Monti to offer a six-week residency in a stunning palazzo in Brescia, Italy. Since its foundation in 2017, Palazzo Monti has hosted over 50 artists from 34 artists and ACS is proud to be able to provide a painter a space on this prestigious international programme. The first recipient in 2019 was Diane Dal Pra. Find out more about our residencies and studio awards here.

ACS is delighted to provide an annual bursary which provides support for a student in their vitally important third year of study at the Royal Academy Schools. Previous winners of this award have included Elliot Dodd, Issy Wood and Jenkin van Zyl.

ACS has proudly supported Koestler Arts, a leading prison arts charity in the UK that has been awarding and exhibiting artworks by offenders, detainees and secure patients for over 50 years, since 2013. The financial funding ACS provides supports the development of a variety of prizes, inspiring offenders to take part in the arts, work for achievement and transform their lives.

Since 2012, ACS has been a supporter of the Young Masters Art Prize, a high-profile prize that recognises how contemporary artists embrace the art of the past in their work. ACS offers vital support to this competition by sponsoring a prize each year in which it is run.

Recognising the wealth and diversity of artistic talent stretching across the United Kingdom, ACS has sponsored a large number of awards and prizes at universities up and down the country since 2012.

This has included prizes for Fine Art students at the University of Dundee, Loughborough University, Falmouth University, Brighton University, UWE Bristol, Manchester Metropolitan University, Newcastle University and Nottingham Trent University, University of Leeds and the Slade School of Fine Art at UCL.