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The critical moment: exploring Awards for Artists

Published: 12 November 2025 
Recipients of 2024’s Awards for Artists. Photo credit: Emile Holba.

Each year, our Awards for Artists recognise exceptional visual artists and composers. We make these Awards based on a range of factors, one being the impact we believe this Award will have on an artist at that particular moment. 

Defining a ​‘critical moment’

I just felt my creative body shrivelling up. It has been so challenging and I’ve had to be so stubborn to keep going. Without a doubt, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award saved my career as an artist.

Kate Young, 2018 Awards for Artists recipient 

Since they began, our Awards have always considered the impact of their timing on an artist – what we call landing at a ​‘critical’ or timely moment. While this is a subjective measure, the intention is to respond to what is happening in an artist’s life when they apply, both personally and professionally. On the whole, this aspect of the Awards helps us make decisions about why this artist, and why now. 

The answer to why might be that an artist has made a transition in their practice which requires time, space and money for experimentation. It might be to recognise an emerging artist (the youngest recipient of the Awards, Oliver Payne, was 24 at the time of receiving a joint Award alongside Nick Relph for their shared collaborative practice) or to acknowledge a lifetime’s work (the oldest recipient was Gustav Metzger at 80). 

The critical moment looks very different to each artist. And some recipients would say the critical moment was not when the Award was made, but many years before or many years after – our view of what is a turning point for an artist isn’t always how they view their own life and career. In this way, for some, the Award doesn’t necessarily recognise a critical moment but instead, creates one. 

If I hadn’t received the Paul Hamlyn Award I’m sure that many aspects of my life now would be quite different. The award came just after my first son was born, with all the amazing and challenging changes that parenting brings to the continuation of practising as an artist. The award made it so much easier financially to make the move into this new phase of being.

Adam Chodzko, 2002 Awards for Artists recipient 
O, you happy roots, branch and mediatrix (2020). Two screen video, Hildegard von Bingen’s lingua ignotae and image recognition algorithm. Photo credit: Adam Chodzko

Responding to life’s changes

I received the Award months before the pandemic hit. I lost work, opportunities and was unable to approach my practice with a freedom many take for granted. It should have been a moment to breathe, but it was instead one of survival. Without the Award the likelihood is I would be doing a part- or full-time job outside of the arts to keep the lights on. To add, one of my children and my youngest sister have disabilities and are immunocompromised. Coming from poverty and into the art scene tends not to result in a future for people like me.

Larry Achiampong, 2019 Awards for Artists Recipient 

This critical moment is not limited to career. Quite often, the critical moments are times of wider change in an artist’s life and give some breathing room in what is an otherwise challenging time. 

We’ve heard from artists that the Awards have supported crucial costs of housing, relocation, childcare, and ill health and disability. As the Awards are made without any specific requirements for how they’re spent, artists have been able to sustain and develop their practice with some relief from the financial pressures of daily living. 

Hearing from the artists who have received the Award over the years, it is clear that maintaining a career as an artist takes real tenacity and commitment and puts a spotlight on the practical barriers which need to be overcome to thrive. 

Paul Hamlyn Award helped me to pursue my art as I used it to help me in my rehab which helped to recover faster from my stroke and pursue my art career. This was an extremely difficult time and transition and the Award has helped immensely to make it easier.

Angela de la Cruz, 2010 Awards for Artists Recipient 

What is Awards for Artists?

We established Awards for Artists in 1994, recognising artists with a financial award to give them freedom to develop their practice. To date, the scheme has benefitted 357 artists with awards totalling £11.29 million. 

Find out more about the Awards