Today, 19th October, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), in partnership with King’s College London, open applications for the second Award for Civic Arts Organisations. The initiative seeks to shine a spotlight on how arts organisations are emerging from a period which has affected every individual and community, disrupted business models, and accelerated many existing trends in the art world as in society. Funds of £150,000 are available, one of the largest amounts for an award in the arts sector, with one prize of £100,000 and two of £25,000. 

The Award is funded by the Foundation. Students from the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King’s will research how organisations are reinforcing their civic role and using new models. Baroness Bull (Deborah Bull), Vice President (Communities & National Engagement) and Senior Advisory Fellow for Culture, King’s College London, will chair the judging panel once again. The other panellists are Sukhy Johal MBE, Amanda Parker, Briana Pegado, Isabelle Schwarz, Devinda de Silva, Mark Williams MBE.

We aim to reward the outstanding practice of some organisations and encourage many others to rethink their own relationships with the communities they serve. In highlighting a few organisations, whose practice our selection panel believes to be exceptional, the Award seeks to incentivise the wider sector to make the fulfilment of a civic role a common key priority. 

Andrew Barnett OBE, Director of the Foundation, says:

‘Building on the successful first year of the Award, the second iteration will enable us to celebrate those organisations that have learnt from the pandemic and adjusted their work in response to their communities. We are looking, in particular, at how organisations are embedding the learning from working through the pandemic and how they are taking their civic role to the heart of their mission.’

Applications close at 1pm GMT on 22 November.