Pandemic prompts new-look Achates Philanthropy Prize for 2020
Melanie May | 5 August 2020 | News
This year’s Achates Philanthropy Prize has been redesigned in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
For 2020, it will see no prizes awarded, with the campaign focusing on a UK-wide showcase of case studies from across the UK. Researched by regional Prize Ambassadors, these will show how cultural organisations have worked with their communities and how their communities have responded during this year.
A shortlist of these case studies, selected by the Prize judges, will be showcased at a ceremony on Thursday 12 November 2020, curated and presented with HOME, Manchester. The ceremony will be preceded by a free one-day conference entitled Art, Audiences, Money, which will consider the future of the sector and the relationship between these issues.
In previous years, the Achates Philanthropy Prize has asked cultural organisations across all art forms to nominate an individual, group, trust or company which has supported them for the first time, at all levels, within the last 12 months. The two winning arts organisations have received a £5,000 grant, with their nominated individual or company becoming the custodian of one of two prize sculptures for the year.
This year, eight Achates Philanthropy Prize Ambassadors have been appointed to research and develop fifteen case studies each – from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and each of the five ACE regions in England (London, South East, South West, North and Midlands). Each Ambassador is resident in their region and will compile a collection of case studies that will provide a snapshot into the role of cultural organisations within their communities in 2020.
The Prize will also invite the public to celebrate local arts organisations that have made a difference to their community with the hashtag #artfeltthanks.
Achates Philanthropy Foundation Chair, Caroline McCormick, said:
“This year’s Achates Philanthropy Prize has been reimagined in response to the pandemic. We want to champion and celebrate the remarkable groundswell of innovative responses from cultural organisations across the country within their communities. The arts have immeasurable and far-reaching value beyond economic value alone, and this is our focus this year – be that intrinsic artistic value, or social value which brings benefits for social engagement, health and well-being, education and empowerment.
“The eight Prize Ambassadors charged with researching fifteen case studies each in their region will be rigorous in their search for the broadest range of outstanding examples of the myriad ways we value and share art up and down the country. This showcase will be the central anchor of our Art, Audiences, Money conference, as we come together to think about the future of the sector.”
A 19-strong panel of judges, including Javaad Alipoor, artist and writer; Deanne Bell, Doctor at Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust; Dr Alison Body, Lecturer in Philanthropic Studies at the University of Kent, and Alex Cheales, solicitor and Achates Philanthropy Foundation Trustee, will review the 120 case studies and hand-pick a shortlist which will be showcased at a special ceremony presented in partnership with HOME in Manchester on Thursday 12 November 2020.
They will join Prize sponsors, partners and Achates Philanthropy Foundation Trustees to make the 2020 selection, and the full conference programme will be announced in September 2020.
Main image: 2019 Individual Philanthropy Award winners and judges (left to right): Michael Nabarro, Caroline McCormick, John Gillman, Francis Runacres, Nick Thomlinson, Sahana Gero, Mary Winch, Sal Goldsmith, Hannah Rothschild CBE and Bill Swainson OBE. Photo by James Allan.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.