THE AMPERSAND FOUNDATION AWARD
In 2019, we established The Ampersand Foundation Award, a biennial UK prize that aims to recognise and reward curatorial excellence, vision, and risk taking. The award provides funding for organisations to realise their most ambitious exhibition or visual art project, with the winner receiving £150,000.
Our goal is to enable curators and directors to realise projects they have long envisioned but could not undertake due to funding pressures and constraints. Proposals are unrestricted regarding subject matter, and we welcome innovative ideas, particularly those that are bold and unconventional, for all types of visual art projects across any art period.
The selection process involves a shortlist of five proposals, from which one is chosen. The winner receives £125,000 to realise their proposed project, along with an additional £25,000 to produce a related publication. They have up to 3 years to deliver the project. The remaining shortlisted organisations each receive £5,000 to cover the costs of preparing their proposals.
Eligibility for the Award is currently limited to curators working in organisations that are members of Plus Tate, a network of 45 UK visual arts organisations facilitated by Tate.
The Ampersand Foundation Award 2025
The winner of The Ampersand Foundation Award 2025 is Adam Sutherland, Director of Grizedale Arts. Described as the culmination of his entire career at Grizedale Arts, Reform Life is an exhibition, public art project, symposium and publication exploring environmentalism and the rural arts movements of the past 100 years. From the first environmental lecture by John Ruskin to the urgencies of now, the project will explore and contextualise significant but little-known art movements of European rural culture, citing these as an alternative and influential history that illuminates the last 50 years of Grizedale Arts’ work.
A symposium will launch seven new commissions across the Coniston Valley, home of Grizedale Arts, John Ruskin and Kurt Schwitters. An exhibition will mark new links between historical and contemporary art and social and political history. There will also be a comprehensive publication that makes the case for rural cultures to be understood as an alternative strand of cultural history and demonstrates their profound influence on global politics and culture.
The 2025 winner was selected from a shortlist of five proposals: Camden Arts Centre / Gina Buenfeld-Murley (Exhibitions Curator) Grizedale Arts / Adam Sutherland (Director) [WINNER] MIMA / Dr. Laura Sillars (Director/Dean) & Dr. Claire Louise Staunton (Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow) MK Gallery / Anthony Spira (Director) Towner Eastbourne / Joe Hill (Director)
Judging panel: Alastair Sooke, Trustee, The Ampersand Foundation Clarrie Wallis, Director, Turner Contemporary (winner of the Award in 2023) Jack Kirkland, Chairman, The Ampersand Foundation Mark Wallinger, Artist Sam Thorne, Trustee, The Ampersand Foundation
Please note that Turner Contemporary, as the winner of the 2023 Award, did not enter the 2025 edition of the Award.