The John Ruskin Prize
The John Ruskin Prize is now one of the most significant multi-disciplinary art prizes in the UK, accepting submission from anywhere in the world. With the values of John Ruskin at its core, the Ruskin Prize has a growing reputation for supporting and promoting artists, designers and makers whose work defies easy categorisation.
The John Ruskin Prize was founded by The Guild of St. George in 2012, and is now run under the administrative umbrella of The Big Draw supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust. Over the years the prize has honoured painters, printmakers, designers, sculptors, photographers and a wide range of craftspeople. The Prize is organised by Parker Harris, and the Guild is proud to support the First and Second Prize each year.
In his lifetime, Ruskin was primarily famed not as an artist but as a writer, critic, outspoken social commentator and inspiring public lecturer. For him, “The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and say what it saw in a plain way”. He considered his own drawing and painting - from a geological specimen to an Alpine scene or the architecture of Venice - principally as his route to truly seeing and recording the world or, in the case of the enormous diagrams with which he illustrated his lectures for example, to encouraging others properly to see it and thus to enrich their lives as productive members of society.
Each year a theme is chosen for the Prize that derives from the richness of Ruskin's thinking about art and about the world in which art is made.
It is anticipated that submissions for the 2026 John Ruskin Prize will open in the spring/summer of 2025.
Read more on the Ruskin Prize website here.
You can also download the full catalogue of recent Prize exhibitions via links further down this page.
THE 2025 JOHN RUSKIN PRIZE
The theme for the 2025 Prize, From the Eye to the Hand,wais intentionally open to individual interpretation through work which recognises and reveals the crucial relationship between the eye that truly sees and the hand which responds creatively to that sight.
Selected from nearly 3000 entries, the shortlist, which called for artists to explore the theme ‘From the Eye to the Hand’ was exhibited in January 2025 at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London. You can download a pdf copy of the exhibition catalogue HERE.
A total of 87 works by 85 artists, makers and innovators were selected by Andrew Nairne OBE: Director, Kettles Yard, Prof Anita Taylor: Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee, Charles.O.Job: Architect and designer, Nichola Johnson OBE FSA: a Director of the Guild of St George, and Emma Stibbon RA: Artist & Royal Academician.
1st Prize £3000: Tim Parry-Williams “Dinner Service”
2nd Prize: £2000: Sarah Casey “Weather Eye”
Highly Commended: Julie Heaton “It Had to Be So”
Highly Commended: Kathryn Poole “Ford”
The Alan Davidson Under 26 Prize: £1000: Alice Goehrs - 120 m² de geste dans le vaste (120 m² of gesture in the vastness)
The Alan Davidson Under 26 Highly Commended: Hannah MacCaig “Redwood”
The International Prize £1000: Aleksandra Czuja “Disappear”
The International Prize Highly Commended: Eamon O’Kane “Baum Test Series”
Innovation Prize £500: Carali McCall “Running Restraint” (Live performance) 2024
Nichola Johnson presents the first prize to Tim Parry-Williams, for his work 'Dinner Service' (seen in the foreground below)
THE JOHN RUSKIN PRIZE 2024
After the hiatus caused by the Covid lockdowns, the John Ruskin Prize returned in 2024, with two innovations. For the first time, it was open to international entries, and the range of media was also expanded to include photography, film, digital art in all forms, making this edition of the Prize particularly wide-ranging. There were more than 4000 entries from around the world, and a distinguished panel of judges selected the short list for exhibition, and then the winning artists. The prize winners are shown below, and you can find out more HERE or download the catalogue of the London Exhibition HERE.
THE JOHN RUSKIN PRIZE 2019
A record number of artists, makers and designers responded to The John Ruskin Prize 2019 nationwide call for entries, inviting submissions in response to the theme: Agent of Change.
Over 1250 artists and designers, working in and across a broad range of disciplines submitted work. The 2019 selection panel considered over 3500 artworks, selecting 25 - 30 artists for the shortlist. From the shortlist 3 winners were announced and awarded their share of the £5K Prize Fund at the Private View and Prize Giving at The Holden Gallery, Manchester on 11 July 2019. Read full details of the winners and exhibition HERE and you can download the catalogue HERE.
With the values of the radical polymath John Ruskin at its core, and with his legacy in the spotlight in this bicentenary year, we are proud that the themes explored through The John Ruskin Prize resonate so strongly with creatives working across the nation.
THE JOHN RUSKIN PRIZE 2017:
Many thanks to all of you who joined the large crowd that gathered for the Private View and awards evening for The John Ruskin Prize 2017 on 20 June. The exhibition of shortlisted works, Master of All Trades, is open until 8 October at Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery.
Congratulations to the winners of the Prize this year (works below, L-R, 1st-Student):
1st Prize: Rosa Nguyen (£3000);
2nd Prize: Bethan Lloyd Worthington (£1000):
Student & Graduate Award: Fi Smart (£1000).
Read more on the JRP website, run by The Big Draw.
If you have discovered a few new favourite artists and designers among the exhibited works, you might be interested in the new Ruskin Prize Editions collection, featuring new editions and original works by the artists, some of them exclusive to the collection. Take a look.
SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED
The John Ruskin Prize 2017 Shortlist Exhibition
MASTER OF ALL TRADES
21st June – 8th October 2017
Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Preview: 6 - 8pm, Tuesday 20th June 2017
We welcome you to join us at the Private View & Prize Giving as we announce our three winners and present prizes of £3000 (1st Prize), £1000 (2nd Prize) and £1000 (Student & Recent Graduate Prize).
INVITATION & RSVP
The Big Draw today announced the shortlist of The John Ruskin Prize 2017, which this year celebrates the ‘Artist as Polymath’ and attracted a record number of submissions from fine artists, makers and craftspeople from across the UK.
1st Prize: Rosa Nguyen (£3000);
The shortlisted artists are: Louisa Boyd, Holly Brodie, Nuala Clooney, Andrew Ekins, Erin Dickson, Paul Hazelton, Marielle Hehir, Anne Howeson, Rebecca Ilett, Shelley James, Debbie Lawson, Emily Lazerwitz, Sue Lawty, Bethan Lloyd Worthington, Hugh Miller, Rosa Nguyen, Kyle Noble, Briony O Clarke, Sumi Perera, Shauna Richardson, Conor Rogers, Fi Smart, Serena Smith, Harland Viney, Simon Ward & Robert Mach, and Ray Winder.
About the shortlist
Selected from over 1000 entries, the final shortlist of 26 artists, makers and innovators responded to the call for contemporary Polymaths with work that defies categorisation, dissolves boundaries and has a joyous disregard for the conventions of their chosen materials and disciplines. The artist / scientist parallel is apparent in the shortlist but there is also evidence of traditional craft combined with social commentary, skilful material manipulation and a visual wit within the selected artworks.
2nd Prize: Bethan Lloyd Worthington (£1000):
The Prize
The John Ruskin Prize is now in its fourth year and invited entries from emerging and established artists and makers aged 18 or over living in the United Kingdom. The Award is £5000 with £3000 going to the winner, and £1000 going to both the Second Prize and Student and Recent Graduate Prize winners.
Winners will be announced on Tuesday 20th June at a private view and prize-giving ceremony at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield. The shortlist exhibition, Master of all Trades, will be on display 21st June – 8th October 2017, and will provide a contemporary counterpart to The Ruskin Collection, which is cared for by Museums Sheffield and on display at the Millennium Gallery.
Student & Graduate Award: Fi Smart (£1000).
The members of The John Ruskin Prize 2017 selection panel are: Kirstie Hamilton (Head of Exhibitions & Displays, Museums Sheffield), Zachary Eastwood-Bloom (Sculptor), Mandy Payne (Artist), Julia Bell (Former Head of Partnerships, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art), Dr Rachel Dickinson (Director for Education, Guild of St. George / Principal Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University), and Kate Mason (Director, The Big Draw).
HAND & EYE
MASTER OF ALL TRADES: THE JOHN RUSKIN PRIZE 2017
Wednesday 21 June 2017 - Sunday 8 October 2017
This summer sees works shortlisted for the John Ruskin Prize 2017 make their debut at the Millennium Gallery, SHeffield. Inspired by John Ruskin, the award, established by The Big Draw in collaboration with the Guild of St George, is now in its fourth year.
The 2017 Prize invited artists, makers and craftspeople from across the UK to investigate the theme of the artist as polymath, a multi-skilled master of many disciplines.
3rd John Ruskin Prize (2015-16)
Recording Britain Now: Society
The winners of the 3rd John Ruskin Prize were announced at the New Art Gallery, Walsall, on Thursday, 25th February 2016. Read the official announcement on The Big Draw website. The John Ruskin Prize was inaugurated by the Guild and is part-funded by us. It is also supported by The Pilgrim Trust, and is run by The Big Draw.
First prize
Laura Oldfield Ford
Colliers Wood (acryllic and oil on canvas
Second prize
SECOND PRIZE Jessie Brennan
A Fall of Ordinariness and Light (graphite on paper
Student prize
Robin Sukatorn
Jeremy Corbyn speaks in Manchester (graphite stick on paper
The exhibition, Recording Britain Now: Society runs at the New Art Gallery, Walsall from Friday 26th February to Sunday, 17th April. It will transfer to the Electricians' Shop Gallery, Trinity Buoy Wharf, where it will run 6th-22nd May.
6th - 21sy May 2016
open daily, Noon till 6pm
John Ruskin Prize exhibition
Recording Britain Now: Society
Electricians' Shop, Trinity Buoy Wharf [venue website]
Private View and Launch:
Thursday, 5th May 6-9pm
FREE RSVP online
An exhibition of the artists' work shortlisted for the 2015 John Ruskin Prize.
Shortlist Announced (December 2015)
Companions will remember that the Big Draw/Campaign for Drawing originated in an initiative of the Guild of St George. It is now a thriving independent charity with a global reach. In 2012, the Guild and the Campaign joined forces to hold an art competition, the John Ruskin Prize. We are delighted to inform you that the winning shortlist of 30 artists competing in the third Prize (Recording Britain Now: Society) has now been announced. You can read all about it - and view examples of the artwork - online.
