#RUSKINPRIZE 2017 | CALL FOR ENTRIES NOW OPEN!

The Big Draw with the Guild of St. George is pleased to announce the call for artists and makers open for The 4th John Ruskin Prize 

Application Deadline: Monday 24th April 2017

Prizes: 1st Prize (£3000) | 2nd Prize (£1000) | Student Prize (£1000)

Shortlist Exhibition: The Millennium Gallery, Sheffield 21st June – 8th October 2017

Selection Panel: Kirstie Hamilton (Head of Exhibitions & Displays Museums Sheffield), Zachary Eastwood-Bloom (Sculptor & Designer), Mandy Payne (Artist), Julia Bell (Head of Partnerships, BALTIC Centrefor Contemporary Arts), Clive Wilmer (Master, Guild of St George), Kate Mason (Director, The Big Draw)

The selection panel will select 20 prize finalists to be included in a high profile shortlist exhibition at The Millennium Gallery, Sheffield 21st June – 8th October 2017. The three winners will be announced at the private view in June 2017. All prize finalists will also have the opportunity to be included in the online Ruskin Editions collection.

2017 THEME

This year’s theme: Hand & Eye: Master of All Trades in The Age of Jack refers to the Artist as Polymath. Open to a range of interpretations and approaches, the theme is intended to lend itself to responses from artists and makers whose work celebrates the opportunity to marry diverse materials and disciplines.

ELIGIBILITY

In celebration of ‘Artist as Polymath’, 2017 marks the first year that The Prize will be open to makers and craftspeople, as well as fine artists. Alongside Ruskin’s own career as a polymath, the theme has been jointly inspired by The Year of Making in Sheffield, which took place throughout 2016, and The Big Draw’s year of STEAM Power, which celebrates the interconnections between Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths

– The selection panel will announce the 1st Prize, 2nd Prize and Student Prize Winners with a total prize fund of £5,000 at the Private View of the shortlist exhibition in June 2017.

ABOUT THE JOHN RUSKIN PRIZE

Still a relatively new award,  The John Ruskin Prize has gained a reputation as one of the most exciting and challanging multi-disciplinary art prizes in the UK. Inaugurated in 2012, The Guild of St. George renewed its links with The Big Draw (formerly The Campaign for Drawing) to inaugurate The John Ruskin Prize – open to all artists over 18 working in the UK. The Prize allows us promote and give exposure to the work of emerging artists using a wide range of media and techniques. The Prize’s emphasis on observation reflects John Ruskin’s belief that drawing helps us to see the world more clearly, and therefore take greater heed of its fragility