ARTISTS TALKING

The proliferation of arts competitions in recent years are seen by some as a reaction to and an attempt at resisting an increasingly fragmented art market and the destabilisation of values that follow.

As Nina Madden explains, the awarding of prizes is an attempt to validate and to define quality and as such, prizes occupy important points in the complex network of the art world.

Benefits

Competitions give money directly to artists without the demands that usually follow from the public funding system for the arts (social awareness, inclusion, community engagement, new target groups, new audiences, etc).

Apart from the cash, prizes offer a seal of approval that is unachievable purely through sales.

Thus competitions can be regarded as a process of canonisation that attempts to differentiate itself from the valorisation of art and artists by the commercial players.

This network of art market and competitions is of course all part of the same system. Winning a prize, or being shortlisted, can help to ease the transitions from one point to another within the network of the art- world.

As the prizes are followed closely by art world professionals, winning or being shortlisted provides an opportunity for the work to be seen by a large international audience which can open doors to grants, fellowships and research opportunities. These in turn increase the possibility of being included in exhibitions or nominated for other prizes in the future.

Jerwood Foundation

The Jerwood Foundation administers several high-profile visual arts prizes.

• Jerwood Painting Prize
• Jerwood Drawing Prize
• Jerwood Sculpture Prize
• Jerwood Applied Arts Prize

These are covered on the next pages

Painting Prize
The Jerwood Painting Prize is perhaps, along with the John Moores, the best-known painting prize in the UK. It is also one that holds the most sway abroad. An annual competition in its eighth year in 2003, it is open to UK and Irish artists of any age. Artists are invited to submit a maximum of three original works. These are judged 'blind' by a panel for against the criteria of "excellence and talent".

The idea behind judging the works in this way is to provide the possibility for less well-known artists to compete against more established ones. However, critics have questioned the validity of this notion – can works be judged equally on merit when some will clearly be recognised as being by artists with an already established career profile?

The works of six artists are shortlisted and exhibited at the Jerwood Space in London and the winner is awarded £30,000.

Apart from providing financial relief, the Jerwood Painting Prize can also open doors to other opportunities. Katie Pratt, winner of the prize in 2001, wonders whether she would have received her AHRB fellowship at Winchester had she not won the Jerwood Prize.

Drawing Prize
The Jerwood Drawing Prize is open to both emerging and established artists resident in the UK. As with the painting prize, artists can submit a maximum of three original works and these are judged 'blind'.

In 2003 the prize received over 200 entries. First prize is valued at £5000, second prize at £3000 and third prize of £2000 with two student awards of £500 each.

Sculpture Prize
Set up in 2001, the Jerwood Sculpture Prize is open to artists under 35 years of age or within 15 years of graduating (extended from 10 years in 2001). Artists are invited to submit a proposal and in 2003 the prize received approximately 100 entries.

The panel then selects eight shortlisted artists who are invited to make maquettes of their work exhibition at the Jerwood Space in London. The winner receives £25,000 towards the commission of a sculpture for the Jerwood Sculpture Park.

The shortlist in 2003 included Alison Gill, Gereon Krebber, Hew Locke, Simeon Nelson, Michael Shaw, Noah Sherwood and Ally Wallace, with Krebber selected as the prizewinner.

Applied Arts Prize
Like the other Jerwood Prizes, the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize is open submission and takes place annually. Jerwood receive approximately 100 applications.

Unlike the painting prize the Applied Arts Prize takes into account the applicant's overall oeuvre. Artists are invited to submit slides or CD-ROM with a maximum of 15 images and the grand prize of £15,000 is awarded for "innovation and excellence".

The prize follows a five-year cycle starting with ceramics, textiles, glass, furniture and jewellery. In 2002, the prize was awarded for textiles.

Perspectives

'Perspectives', at the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast, is now in its sixth year. It is open to artists internationally and each year they receive between 500 and 600 applications.

Although 'Perspectives' is an open submission competition with a first prize of £6000, there is a strong curatorial element to the exhibition, which is organised as an international show.

Selectors are chosen for their curatorial approach and in the past have included Lynne Cooke from the Dia Centre in New York, Jacob Fabricius, freelance curator from Copenhagen and Sarah Pierce from Arthouse. Each year approximately 17-20 artists are shortlisted.

Artists submit slides of finished work but there is also the possibility to put forward a proposal for a new work that has not yet been realised. In the case of such a proposal being accepted, the gallery will cover the cost of materials and installation.

Although 'Perspectives' does not receive the same media attention as competitions such as Beck's Futures it is a good opportunity for artists to have their work seen by international curators.

Phil Collins, a UK artist based in Belfast, who won the first prize in 2000 went on to take up a residency with PS1 New York. He also received the Paul Hamlyn Award, was included in Manifesta and was picked up by the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin around the same time.

Prospects

The Pizza Express 'Prospects' is a contemporary drawing prize open to established and emerging artists. The winner is awarded £10,000 and there is also a student prize of £2000.

Judges in 2003 were Susie Allen (chair), Anya Gallaccio (artist), Katharine Stout (co-founder of the Drawing Room Project), David Thorp (Curator Contemporary Projects, Henry Moore Foundation) and Richard Wentworth (artist). The closing date is 28 February each year.

The 2002 winner Ian Davenport who created Poured lines believes the prize furthered his career, in that he has been chosen to exhibit in the Tate Triennial at Tate Britain in 2004.

He said: "I've been working as an artist for fourteen years now but winning 'Prospects' gave me a much stronger presence in the art world and has helped me secure some major exhibitions".

John Moores

The John Moores Exhibition of Contemporary Painting is, together with the Jerwood Painting Prize, the best-known painting prize in the UK. Since inception in 1957 it has been held at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and since 1980, the Walker has added the first prize winning work to its collection.

The gallery has thus acquired works by John Hoyland, Bruce McLean, Lisa Milroy, Peter Doig and Michael Raedecker, amongst others. The John Moores is a biannual event, and since 1999 it has been one of the strands of the Liverpool Biennial.

Like the Jerwood Painting Prize, the panel tries to judge the works 'blind'. As of 2002 the panel selects works from slides, so good documentation is important.

Over 5000 entries were received and 38 paintings made it to the final show. The first prize is £25,000 and the four other shortlisted artists receive £2500 each. Winner this year was Peter Davies with his text painting Superstar Fucker – Andy Warhol Text Painting, chosen by the panel of Fiona Rae, Jenny Saville and Matthew Collings.

Beck's Futures

An annual event now in its third year, Becks Futures aims to showcase up-and-coming British artists, showing "tomorrows talent today". The prize is an attempt to associate Beck's with emerging talent and it is effective in providing the shortlisted artists with ample exposure in the media.

In 2002 with Bjork presenting the prize and Marianne Faithfull on the panel of judges, it went slightly overboard on presenting itself as the 'trendy' art prize and it received a poor reception. The 2003 panel is made up of Michael Landy, Maria Lind, Russell Ferguson and Hans Ulrich Orbist.

Entry is by invitation only and a few hundred key figures in the art world are selected as nominees. These are allowed to nominate three artists who are then invited to submit a proposal and a shortlist is drawn from their proposals.

Invited artists exhibit work at the ICA in London in April. The winner receives a cheque of £24,000 and other shortlisted artists £4000 each. The exhibition tours around the UK. 2001 winner, Tim Stoner, subsequently moved to Italy to take up a scholarship with the prestigious British School at Rome.

Beck's Futures also hosts several student prizes. In 2002 the first prize for students was a film and video award of £2000. The second prize of £1000 was also awarded for film and video. There are usually four additional runner-up prizes of £500.

In 2001, however, the judges found it difficult to decide amongst the entries so a total of eight runner-ups received £500 each.

Citibank

The Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize is an "achievement award" that goes to the individual who is seen to have made the most significant contribution to the medium of photography during the year preceding the prize.

It was founded in 1996 and takes place annually. While the nomination process is open, in reality only artists who have made a substantial body of exhibited or published work during the preceding year are considered.

The four shortlisted artists are exhibited at the Photographers Gallery in London. The prize money is increased each year and toal prize money for 2003 is £26,000. All four shortlisted artist receive 10% of the winning amount.

UK photographer Simon Norfolk was amongst four finalists for the 2003 prize. Jitka Hanzlova (Czech Republic/Germany), Bertien van Manen (Netherlands) and Juergen Teller (Germany/UK) were also selected from eighty nominations by Frits Gierstberg (Netherlands Photo Institute), Paul Mellor (Open Eye Gallery), Brett Rogers (British Council) and Paul Wombell (The Photographers Gallery).

East

East International is organised by Norwich Gallery. It is the UK's largest annual, international contemporary art exhibition. An open submission competition, in 2003 East attracted 1330 applications from 38 countries. Usually 25 artists are selected but due to a shortfall in funding this number was reduced to 20 in 2002.

The prize of £5000 is seen as an encouragement award and in 2002 it was shared between Adam Blumberg and Jessica Jackson Hutchins (USA), Daniel Milohnic and Dirk Paschke (Germany), Hiraki Sawa (Japan) and Clare Iles (UK).

Mostyn Open

Oriel Mostyn is open to artists working in any medium. There are no restrictions in terms of age or geography. Artists are invited to submit slides, CD-ROM or video of maximum six works and the works must be owned by the artist.

In 2002, works by 38 artists were selected from 484 entries by Mostyn's Director Martin Barlow, Ikon Gallery's Jonathan Watkins, and artists Rachel Lowe and Craig Wood.

The Mostyn Open prizewinner gets £6000 and the work acquired by Oriel Mostyn Gallery. The entry fee of £17 finances the exhibition.

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition takes place every spring in London. An open submission, the cash prizes include:

• Charles Wollaston Award £25,000
• Bovis/Architect Journal Award £7500
• Jack Goldhill Award £8000
• The Diageo Award £5000
• Dupree Family Award £2500
• Chartered Architects Award £1000
• Nordstern Award £1000

The summer exhibition usually attracts about 12,000 works of which approximately 10% are hung. Throughout the exhibition over 60% of the works hung are sold.

The writer

Nina Madden is a writer, critic and arts manager based in London.