£10,000 bursary for UK-based artists from The Dover Prize

Applications are now open for The Dover Prize 2025, a significant opportunity for UK-based visual artists and creative practitioners to develop their practice through a two-year bursary worth £10,000.

Open to individuals, partnerships or collectives from across the UK, The Dover Prize supports time to think, research, reflect and experiment. It offers a rare chance to consolidate existing work or make a bold step-change in approach – with the final result exhibited for the first time in Darlington in 2027

Now in its 26th year, The Dover Prize was established in 1998 by philanthropist Peggy Nonhebel (née Dover) to promote the arts and arts education in and around Darlington, North East England.

Managed by Point North it has awarded more than £85,000 and supported over 20 artists, contributing to a growing culture of creative ambition in the region.

The funding can be used to support a wide range of activities, including research travel, materials, equipment, workshops, or training. Applicants must clearly outline how they would use the funding to develop their work.

Creative practitioners working in painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, photography, digital art, film, performance, installation, and related visual arts fields, can all apply.

Applicants must be based in the UK and able to demonstrate a commitment to their practice by meeting at least three professional criteria such as having exhibited work, received public commissions or taken part in artist residencies.

The most recent winner of The Dover Prize is artist Rebecca Moss, chosen from over 320 submissions for her clever, public-facing and humorous work.

Rebecca plans to use the bursary to explore Darlington’s industrial heritage through kinetic art and water-powered mechanisms and will exhibit the results of this exploration in Darlington in Summer 2025.

This year’s judging panel is Phil Gatenby, Vicky Holbrough, Matthew Jarratt, Helen Marriage, Dr. Alistair Robinson, Vicky Sturrs and Stephen Wiper.

Applications for The Dover Prize 2025 are open until 11:59pm (BST) on Sunday 1st June 2025, and should be made via www.thedoverprize.co.uk