Awards and arts prizes – quick links
Awards and arts prize winners
John Ruskin Prize Winners
The winners of the John Ruskin Prize have been announced. Duncan Cameron received the £3000 first prize for his sculptural work Stratigraphy, while Kanmi Olukanniwon the £1000 Alan Davidson Under-26 Prize for Me, Myself and I.
The Ruskin Mill Trust Prize of £3000, awarded for a beautifully crafted functional object, went to Lena Heinrich for Taxonomy of a Straw Bundle and Henny Burnett received the £2,500 Chelsea Arts Club Trust Prize for mid-career artists for Sponge Tower & Corrugated Tower.
The John Ruskin Prize Exhibition is on now and continues to 21 February at the Trinity Buoy Wharf in London. It features 91 works by 82 artists, makers and innovators, selected by the judges from almost 4000 entries. This year’s theme was ‘Patience in Looking, Truth in Making’.
2026 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards Shortlist
The shortlists have been announced for this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. These prestigious awards showcase outstanding musicians, ensembles, organisations and initiatives from across the UK, celebrating the inspirational role that classical music plays in our lives.
Conductor John Wilson, soprano Louise Alder, composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, young trombone player Peter Moore and hit opera Festen all feature in the shortlists.
An additional award, the Gamechanger, will be presented by the Board and Council of the RPS. This recognises an initiative, individual, group or organisation that breaks new ground in classical music through inspirational and transformative work.
The RPS Awards will be presented on 12 March at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank. Tickets are now available.
Pastel Society Award Winners
Congratulations to all the award winners at the Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2026. Sheila Goodman won the £1,000 Caran d’Ache Prize for Autumn Glory, Benjamin Hope received the £1,000 Pastel Society Prize for Sunrise behind Tower Bridge, the £1,000 Yoshimoto Prize for an outstanding work in any dry medium by a non-member went to Sarah Manolescue for Flowers in the Window, and The President’s Prize of £500, for the best work by an artist aged 35 or under, went to Miles Elliott for Visual Geometry on Tlön.
CHANEL Next Prize Winners
The CHANEL Next Prize is a biennial award that recognises contemporary artists who are redefining their disciplines. This year’s prize was awarded to 10 pioneering artists from 10 countries. As diverse as it is multi-disciplinary, the 2026 cohort covers visual art, performance, design, music and film, and includes musician and composer Ambrose Akinmusire, dancer and choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira, artist and composer Pan Daijing, filmmaker Payal Kapadia, choreographer and artist Andrea Peña, artist and designer Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, and visual artists Ayoung Kim, Pol Taburet, Álvaro Urbano and Emeka Ogboh.
Established in 2021 by the CHANEL Culture Fund, and now in its third edition, the CHANEL Next Prize provides recipients with the time and space to realise ambitious new projects. The winners receive a grant of €100,000 in unrestricted funding to accelerate the impact of their work. They also participate in a two-year mentorship and networking program with cultural partners including the Royal College of Art in London.
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026
The shortlisted artists for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026 are Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, Amak Mahmoodian and Rene Matić.
The prize was established in 1996 to identify and reward artists for an exhibition or book that made a significant contribution to photography in the previous 12 months. This year’s international shortlist includes collaborative projects; long-term investigative documentary photography; installations, video and sound pieces; and experimental conceptual photography.
The shortlisted photographers explore themes of exile and memory, gender inequalities and advocacy, identity and belonging, subculture and class, and the shifting boundaries between photographic fact and fiction.
An exhibition of selected work will be presented at The Photographers’ Gallery in London from 6 March to 7 June. The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced on 14 May, with the other shortlisted artists each receiving £5,000.
Women’s Prize for Playwriting
Georgina Duncan is the winner of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2025 for her work Sapling.
This is the UK’s only national award dedicated to championing and supporting exceptional playwrights who identify as female or non-binary. Sapling was chosen from a record-breaking 1275 submissions.
The awards ceremony also featured a special monologue – written by Abi Morgan with contributions from the longlisted writers – that was performed by Dame Meera Syal to celebrate the legacy and continuing impact of the women shaping British theatre.
Kristin Scott Thomas received WPP’s inaugural Leading Light Award, a lifetime achievement prize that recognises a leading female in the arts industry for their enduring influence, distinguished body of work and outstanding contribution to culture.
Upcoming opportunities
The Papatango New Writing Prize – closes 16 March
The 2026 Papatango New Writing Prize is now open. This year, the prize has been expanded and will recognise two writers, awarding commissions, pathways to production, publication and royalties.
The winner of The Papatango Prize will receive a full run co-produced by Papatango and Park Theatre at Park200. They will also receive an £8000 commission, royalties and publication with Nick Hern Books.
The Papatango Prize Discovery will commission a new talent with £8000 and a more open-ended development and production pathway, to matchmake the writer and their story to the right venues, audiences and communities.
Three additional shortlisted writers will each receive a cash award to support their writing and be invited to join an elite development group, with dramaturgy and mentoring to empower them to take the next steps in their career.
Entries close on 16 March.
Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards – closes 26 February
The Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards will recognise four early career writers currently living in the North of England. There are two awards for fiction and narrative non-fiction and two for poetry.
The winning writers will each receive a bursary of £5000 to support the development of their work-in-progress. The winners will also receive access to New Writing North’s comprehensive program of support.
The awards are open to writers who have already been professionally published, with the aim of supporting writers at a pivotal point in their careers as they develop new work towards publication.
Entries for The Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards close on 26 February.
Belfast Photo Festival Open Call – closes 2 March
Submissions are now open for the 2026 Belfast Photo Festival. This major festival offers significant international exposure to both art lovers and industry audiences.
It gives both established and emerging photographers the opportunity to have their work assessed by an influential jury including Roxana Marcoci, Acting Chief Curator at MoMA in New York, and Florian Ebner, Head of Photography at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
There is a broad range of prizes on offer, along with the opportunity to have work promoted in the festival’s exhibitions and outreach to over 100,000 visitors.
Submissions must be photographic or lens-based but can include combinations with other art forms such as performance, painting, sculpture, music, literature and more. Individuals and collectives are welcome to apply.
The entry deadline is 2 March.
Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year – closes 20 February
Storyvault Films is now accepting entries for Series 13 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. You can apply with a portrait and a self-portrait created within the last five years. The 72 contestants will take part in eight heats with three semi-finalists going through to the final.
Each week, the contestants are challenged to paint a portrait of a surprise celebrity sitter in just four hours. The series winner will receive a £10,000 commission for a major British institution and £500 of art materials from Cass Art.
There is a new judging panel this year, which includes leading contemporary portrait painter Jonathan Yeo, Frieze London Director Eva Langret and art historian, curator and broadcaster Katy Hessel alongside returning host Stephen Mangan. The show will be filmed at the Battersea Arts Centre in London in April.
The deadline to apply for Series 13 is 20 February.
Raw Umber Studios Image Reference Prize 2026 – closes 1 March
The Raw Umber Studios Image Reference Prize is now open. Entrants are asked to make a drawing or painting based on an image from the Raw Umber Studios online reference library. The library holds some 3000 photographic image references of portrait, figure, still life and landscapes, with many available free of charge and some via a subscription.
Prizes include cash awards of £1000 and £500, a feature in Artists & Illustrators Magazine, and a £250 Cass Art gift card. The Prize is free to enter, with entries closing 1 March.
