ARTISTS TALKING

The UK boasts literally hundreds of visual arts competitions annually. This proliferation can be seen as an attempt to resist an increasingly fragmented art market with the subsequent destabilisation of values. The awarding of prizes is one of the ways in which emerging talent is validated and its quality defined.

Although competitions are important because they provide artists with 'no strings' cash, they also offer a seal of approval from curators and other influential people. Winning a prize can have the function of easing an artist's transition from one position to another within the art world – from commercial gallery, teaching positions, publicly-funded exhibition, research fellowships, museum shows, international recognition, public grants, scholarships and back again to prizes.

Open exhibitions

Once a mainstay of the visual arts scene, national open exhibitions are now far and few between. They have proved to be expensive for galleries to mount and the introduction of submission fees has not been popular with artists.

Those opens maintaining key positions include EAST, located in Norwich but claiming to be the "largest annual, international contemporary art exhibition in the UK", Oriel Mostyn Open held annually in Llandudno, and the long-established John Moores biannual show. To the delight of the UK's painters, this competition retains a focus on this medium, whilst others have tended to align themselves to artists working in installation and new media.

A prize or award from an open exhibition or competition can focus attention and raise an artist's profile in a way that a regular exhibition can never do. Even submitting provides an opportunity for the work to be seriously looked at by an expert panel, and thus the possibility of being selected for the future projects those people are involved in.

Jerwood Foundation

Although a relative newcomer, the Jerwood Foundation in less than eight years is fast becoming the major player in the art prize scene, with open competitions in sculpture, painting, drawing and applied arts.

With a £5,000 cash prize for the winner in the Jerwood Drawing Prize right up to £30,000 for the winner in the scheme for painters, and without the form-filling and hoop-jumping of arts funding schemes, such cash prizes are relished by artists.

When she entered for the textiles year of the Jerwood Prize in Applied Arts, Caroline Broadhead was ensure whether her work actually fitted the category: "I have never thought of myself as being a textile person". But sticking to the theory that it's more important to exhibit work than to categorise it, she entered and won.

Although, other than the money there didn't seem initially to be other benefits: "Over a longer period, you realise that there is a recognition that people give you. You are taken more seriously, and that's what is valuable in the long-run".

For Katie Pratt, winning the Jerwood Painting Prize in 2001 provided a momentary relief from financial pressures. As she received more teaching offers she could resign from her part-time administration job.

She was also offered an AHRB Research fellowship at Southampton University, which she believes would not have happened had she not won the prize.

Charitable trusts

Few trusts make grants to individuals, hence the development of prizes and specific awards for artists linked directly to other institutions. One reason is that trusts fear they will not be able to cope with the large number of applications they would receive from individuals.

Another is that – in theory at least – it is less risky to give money to a legally constituted organisation with a board of directors or a committee to take responsibility for it.

One way to circumvent this rule is for the individual artist is to set up a limited company through which to apply for funds. In 2002, the Baring Foundation awarded £5,000 to Pigment Explosion for a visual arts project involving Bengali elders and school children. Pigment Explosion is a one-person company set up by artist Sanchita Islam. As a result, she has been able to access funding that would not be available to her as an individual.

Setting up a company is a straightforward and not very expensive business. This may not suit everybody, but it can dramatically increase the range of funding opportunities available.

But amongst those trusts that do support individuals is (NESTA) National Endowment for Science Technology. The Dream Time Fellowship Awards are designed to give artists, scientists and technologists the possibility of exploring a new line of thought or way of working.

Artist Jo Fairfax, well known for his work in public places, has been awarded £40,000 to develop use of virtual reality in holographic film and holograms.

Beck's Futures

Heralded as "tomorrow's talent today" and aiming to showcase up-and- coming British artists, Beck's Futures has been dubbed a more hip alternative to the Turner Prize. With Bjork presenting the prize and Marianne Faithful a previous judge, the prize is intended to associate Beck's with emerging talent whilst providing less-established artists with ample media exposure and the all-important £24,000 in cash for the winner plus smaller sums for runners-up and winners in the student category.

Previous winners have included Toby Paterson and Tim Stoner. Entry is by invitation only. A few hundred key figures in the art world are selected to nominate three artists each. These artists submit proposals from which a shortlist is drawn.

The press release announcing the 2003 shortlist emphasises the competition's quirkiness: "The shortlist includes an artist who has turned up at job interviews as part of his practice, a collective whose latest film urged visitors to evacuate London, a sculptor who has created a vibrating mummy and a filmmaker who shot work at a Salvation Army jumble sale."

The list includes Carey Young, whose interventions can take place in arts or business settings and Nick Crowe, whose web software and internet sites parody online communities and their homepages.