COLCHESTER.- Firstsite, Colchester and Zealous announce The Artist Prize, a new UK-wide open submission prize co-founded to celebrate and support artists across the UK.

Open to artists at all stages of their career and working in any medium, The Artist Prize awards £30,000 and a solo exhibition to one winner, selected through an open application process. It is among the largest open-submission art prizes in the UK. No single place defines creativity in the country, and the prize is built to celebrate that with a panel of judges from across the country. This is aimed at encouraging artists from across the UK to apply.

Entrants will have their work seen by a panel of around 80 judges drawn from arts organisations across the UK. This panel will select a long list of 200 artists, to be announced in August 2026.

A separate final selection panel will include artists Jeremy Deller and Ryan Gander; author of A Black History of Art, Alayo Akinkugbe; Pita Arreola, Digital Curator, arebyte and author of Digital Art: 1960s–Now; Maria Balshaw, Former Director of Tate; Louisa Buck, Contemporary Art Correspondent, The Art Newspaper; Katrina Brown, Director of The Common Guild, Glasgow; Ekow Eshun, curator of The British Art Show 10; Joe Hill, Director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Tabish Khan, Art Critic, Londonist and FAD; Julie Lomax, CEO, a-n The Artists Information Company; Sally Shaw, Director, Firstsite; Professor Sook-Kyung Lee, Director, The Whitworth and Mariam Zulfiqar, Director of Artangel, will then select 20 shortlisted artists from the long list. The shortlisted artists will be shown together at Firstsite in January 2027, with the full long list of works published on The Artist Prize website. The final selection panel will also choose the overall winner, with a solo exhibition at Firstsite in 2028.

The prize widens access to major exhibition opportunities. It is open to anyone making work in the UK, regardless of background or training. Just submitted work, judged on its merits.

It is a response to a sector under pressure, and an alternative opportunity built on open submission rather than nomination.

A blueprint for the future, The Artist Prize is a model that can be adapted and utilised by arts organisations, offering financial sustainability through a unique structure that incorporates a fee system and sponsorship.

The Artist Prize will publish the initiative’s findings in year one; from the financial model to the evaluation process, institutions across the globe can access the data so they can design similar opportunities for artists in their regions or countries.

Every stage of the submission and selection process has been intentionally crafted to remove barriers - no nomination, no formal training required. The process takes place in three stages.

Applications are now open via The Artist Prize website, with a deadline of 8 July 2026.
The Artist Prize is co-founded by Guy Armitage and Sally Shaw MBE. Guy Armitage is Founder of Zealous, the industry-standard submissions management platform supporting nearly 200,000 creators and hundreds of organisations worldwide. Sally Shaw MBE is Director of Firstsite, Colchester, which won the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021.