The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) is delighted to announce that it will be holding the first ever RBSA Young Artists Prize in the summer of 2025.
Known for its prestigious prize exhibitions, heritage shows, and exhibitions from professional artists and bodies, the RBSA Gallery also holds around five exhibitions each year which are open to artists from around the world.
Open to children aged between 4 and 17 years from across the city of Birmingham, Sandwell District, and Solihull, the free to enter Young Artists Prize aims to give the region’s young creatives a taste of what it’s like to be an artist, and the opportunity to exhibit their artwork in an established gallery with an historic art society.
Artists will be split into four age categories; 4 – 6 years, 7 – 10 years, 11 – 14 years, and 15 – 17 years, and prize winners will be selected from each of these groups. Every exhibiting artist will also receive a certificate to celebrate their involvement at a prize giving event on Saturday 30 August.
The Young Artists Prize will run in the same way as the RBSA’s usual open submission exhibitions, giving young creatives experience of how artists can submit work and how exhibitions are judged and curated. Judges will include art industry professionals as well as an artist from the RBSA Membership.
Society President Viv Astling commented:
“Involving children with the RBSA and its Gallery at an early age is of vital importance to the Society. Not only are these children the country’s future artists, they are also the future of the RBSA. There are so many perceived barriers which stop people from enjoying and creating art, and yet drawing and painting is one of the very first activities that children enjoy as soon as they can hold a pencil. Through this exhibition, we want to break down these barriers and open the doors of the RBSA, its Gallery, and the wider art world to artists of all ages. We hope to demonstrate that being an artist is not an abstract and unobtainable dream, but a very real career path.”
Submissions for the Young Artists Prize will open in May via the RBSA website www.rbsa.org.uk
The exhibition runs from Tuesday 26 August to Saturday 30 August.