Summary of 2017 UK Art Competitions

For all those planning their entries to art competitions in 2017. This morning I updated Major UK Art Competitions 2017-18 - my Page devoted to a summary of details and deadlines about art competitions which are run by art organisations based in the UK.

• The first part includes Tips for entering art competitions
• The Page covers the following art competitions.

The RA Summer Exhibition in the Main Galleries at Burlington House
is the largest open exhibition in the world

Major Art Competitions

These are defined as ones where the first prize is at least £10,000. In broad terms they are listed in terms of the date of their deadline for entries

Exhibitions in 2017

• BP Portrait Award 2017 (First Prize £30,000)
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2017 (First Prize £15,000)
• David Shepherd's Wildlife Artist of the Year 2017 (First prize £10,000)
• The Royal Academy of Arts - Summer Exhibition 2017
• Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2017 (£10,000 commission)
• The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2017 (£10,000)

This is my video walk round the BP Portrait exhibition  at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016

Exhibitions in 2018

• The Columbia Threadneedle Prize for Figurative & Representation Art 2018
• John Moores Painting Prize 2018 (First Prize: £25,000)

An impressive solo exhibition  in the Threadneedle Space at the Mall Galleries in September
Lewis-Hazelwood-Horner won this opportunity and £20,000
as the First Place prizewinner in the Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016

Minor Art Competitions

These are significant art competitions but the prize pot is less and the top prices a lot less than £10k.

• RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2017
• Jerwood Drawing Prize 2017
• ING Discerning Eye 2017

These two sections are followed by information about past art competitions going back to 2007. You can view the images of all the recent and previous exhibitions - and, in some cases, see what sort of artist got selected.

Summary Information

The summary information provided covers:

• Website: 
• Information: this is the one which provides information for artists
• Enter: the one for entering the competition if different
• Organisers : the one for the organisers if not the same as the competition website
• Prizes: listed if available
• Open to: 
• UK: defines how "UK artist" is defined - and it's not always limited to UK citizens
• International Artists: defines whether or not entries from international artists are welcome
• Call for Entries: provides a link to my overview blog post of the call for entries if published
• Deadline for Entries: highlights in red the deadline which must be observed
• No. of Entries: if figures are available these are highlighted
• Digital Entry: indicates whether entries are limited to digital images submitted online - and whether or not any other form of entry (eg postal is allowed)
• Exhibition: 
• Venue: states location
• Dates: states dates - or dates of last exhibition if new details not yet published

The latter entries relate to posts on this blog that relate to those selected, those winning prizes and the exhibition

• Selected Artists: will include my selected artists post when published
• Shortlisted artists: will include my shortlisted artists post when published
• Prizewinners: my blog post covering prizewinners
• Exhibition Review: my review of the exhibition
• Other posts: occasionally there is a video!