Major New Award funded by the Sfumato Foundation

Major New Award funded by the Sfumato Foundation

11-15 Emerald Street
London WC1N 3QL
+44 (0)20 7831 1243
info [​at​] contemporaryartsociety.org

www.contemporaryartsociety.org

In 2009, the Contemporary Art Society will celebrate 100 years of purchasing thousands of works of contemporary art for museums throughout the UK. We are delighted to announce, as part of our forthcoming Centenary celebrations, a major new award open to our nationwide membership of museums to commission an artist early in their career to create a new work for their public collection.

This exciting new initiative has been very generously funded by the Sfumato Foundation.

Due for launch in Spring 2009, the Contemporary Art Society Annual Award will offer 60,000 GBP per annum to a British museum to commission an artist to create a new work to enter their collection. The prize will be open to museum members of the Contemporary Art Society, which extends across the UK, and will invite them to submit a proposal for consideration by a panel of judges. The award aims to develop public collections through new commissions, and to support and extend the practice of an emerging artist by generating a specific and enduring response to a public collection through contemporary art.

Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, said: `For 100 years, the Contemporary Art Society has supported contemporary artists through the promotion of individual and institutional collecting. During the past century, we have played a unique, visionary and often solitary role in the formation of public collections of contemporary art in this country, ensuring that significant works of contemporary art can be enjoyed by the widest possible audiences now and in the future. We are hugely indebted to the Sfumato Foundation for this extraordinary investment in our work at an important moment in our history, which will benefit a number of public collections nationally, and the diverse audiences they serve today and tomorrow.’

The Sfumato Foundation commented: `The Sfumato Foundation welcomes the opportunity to support the Contemporary Art Society in this bold new venture. We believe that it will achieve a number of objectives congruent with those of the foundation, including supporting emerging artists, encouraging the commissioning of contemporary works by UK museums and, we hope, engagement of new audiences for the art of our time.”

Further information and details on how to apply will be circulated in March 2009 and the winner of the Award will be announced in November this year.

For more information on the work of the Contemporary Art Society please visit www.contemporaryartsociety.org