Five Artists and Five Composers Each Receive £75,000 From Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Five artists and five composers will each receive a £75,000 award from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, a UK charity that funds arts and social causes. The Art Newspaper reported the announcement on 5 November 2026.
The artists are Linda Bell, Racheal Crowther, Rory Pilgrim, Georgina Starr and Hayley Tompkins. Pilgrim was nominated for the Turner Prize, Britain's best-known contemporary art prize, in 2023. That year he was recognised for RAFTS, a commission shown at the Serpentine Galleries in London and at Barking Town Hall in east London. Tompkins took part in Scotland + Venice in 2013, an exhibition at the Venice Biennale that also included Corin Sworn and Duncan Campbell.
The composers include Daudi Matsiko and Ayanna Witter-Johnson. The Strad describes Witter-Johnson as a cellist and composer, one of the musicians named in the 2026 list.
The award is what the foundation calls "no-strings-attached", meaning recipients decide how to spend the money. There are no fixed project rules attached. A winner can use it to pay for materials, time away from paid work, or a new piece of work.
The programme has a long track record. Since 1994, the foundation has made 377 awards to artists, totalling more than £12 million. Earlier recipients include the sculptor Phyllida Barlow, the artist Yinka Shonibare and the artist Alberta Whittle.
Judging panels included Joe Hill, director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the outdoor sculpture park in West Yorkshire. Melissa Blanchflower, senior curator at Turner Contemporary in Margate, and Sheryll Catto, artistic director of ActionSpace, also sat on the panel.
For the ten recipients, the award is money with few conditions. For the people who make the work, it can mean months of time to make it rather than squeezing it into evenings and weekends.
