About Young Masters The Young Masters Art Prize is a curatorial platform that celebrates and supports emerging artists from across the world who are inspired by the art of the past. Young Masters was founded by gallerist Cynthia Valianti Corbett in 2009 as a not-for-profit juried Art Prize, inspired by her love of Art History and the Old Masters. The success of the Prize has grown with six incredible editions and has spotted the talents of over 400 artists who are part of our alumni network.

Now, in 2026, our revitalised mission is to support emerging artists from across the world, bringing their work to a wider audience through a curated programme of pop-up exhibitions and fairs as well as maintaining a vibrant online presence that showcases our wide network of talented artists.

This global visibility and support can be career-making and life-changing, with opportunities for sales, exhibitions, gallery representation, press and much more.

We are delighted to announce our newest opportunity, an exciting new collaborative exhibition with the Wimbledon Museum.

Drawing on the museum’s local history collections and archives, the exhibition will explore the uncharted connection between the women’s suffrage movement and Wimbledon.

Artists are invited to submit a proposal that responds to our curatorial statement, highlighting themes of colour symbolism, heritage, feminist history sport and the intersection of cultural memory with contemporary artistic practice.

Proposals that engage with the suffrage palette of purple, white and green, the history of Wimbledon, or wider narratives surrounding women’s visibility and empowerment are particularly encouraged.

This open call welcomes artists working across all disciplines to be considered for inclusion in the exhibition.

Selected artists will have the opportunity to work with the archives of the museum to create a work responding to both the theme and the direct historical artefacts that were prevalent in the fight for women’s rights.

Work will be presented within the context of Wimbledon’s historic museum setting, contributing to a dialogue between contemporary art, archival pieces and social history.

Our research has zoomed in on the visual identity historically associated with the Wimbledon Championships, the personal history of Rose Lamartine Yates and her political links with craftsmen of the time, such as William Morris.

Part of the theme will unpick why the women of Wimbledon had such an instrumental role in the work and finance of the Suffragette movement.

The connection between Wimbledon tennis and the colours of the women’s suffrage movement is embedded in shared themes of respectability, discipline, visibility and controlled rebellion.

While Wimbledon is not directly a suffrage institution, its strict dress codes and visual language intersect symbolically with the suffragette use of colour as a political tool in early 20th-century England.

The overlap of colour palettes generates a space for community and cultural interpretation today; purple, white and green can function as aesthetic bridges between feminist political history and contemporary sports culture, enabling curatorial narratives that explore how colour symbols traverse domains, from protest banners to global tennis branding.

Rose Lamartine Yates was a central figure in the Women’s Suffrage movement, but her activism demonstrated a unique approach largely achieved through her leadership of the Wimbledon Women’s Social & Political Union (WWSPU).

She was a social campaigner and suffragette who championed William Morris’s radical approach to political and social reform. Yates moved to Wimbledon in the early twentieth century as the suffragette movement gained momentum.

She likely was first introduced to reform networks through the moderate Fabian socialist ideals that circulated during her formative intellectual years, finding synergy with its foundational beliefs in equality.

Yates’s shift to militant suffragism occurred in 1908 after she joined the WWSPU. Like Morris’s Socialist League, the WSPU favored radical action.

This included marches on parliament, public rallies and demonstrations designed to disrupt the political climate. In 1909, Yates was imprisoned for suffragette activism and upon her release, was awarded the Holloway Brooch by the WWSPU. This brooch is currently held in the Museum of Wimbledon collection.

For our full research documents, please click here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JSK-lo_V8WBaNnTJJSQk1JtwGi16W0jM?usp=drive_link

Submissions and expressions of interest are warmly encouraged from artists whose work reflects the spirit of historical engagement and reinterpretation that defines the Young Masters programme.

The call will be open for entries on CuratorSpace from Tuesday, 31st March until Midnight on Monday, 4th May 2026.

Artists are asked to submit a proposal that outlines the work they will make based on the research included, collated by the Young Masters and Wimbledon Museum teams alongside their own.

Proposed works are encouraged to be of any media, inclusive of performance and digital work. Please include an estimated size, price (in GBP) and working title.

Successful artists will benefit considerably from their involvement in this collaborative exhibition.

Work will be on sale throughout the two-week show, with 50% of sales going to Young Masters and 50% going to the artist.

Throughout the application period and during the exhibition, Young Masters and the Wimbledon Museum (in addition to the Wimbledon Society) will be marketing this initiative internationally.

Wimbledon Museum attracts visitor numbers of 55,000 annually and Young Masters maintains an active and engaged international audience of over 63,000 collectors, curators, art professionals, and cultural audiences across its digital platforms, website and mailing lists.

Through these channels, Young Masters regularly shares exhibition programmes, artist features, art fair presentations, and special projects, reaching a global audience interested in contemporary art and emerging talent.

A prestigious curatorial panel will be advising and supporting the Young Masters team throughout the entire project.

Helen Pankhurst CBE who is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and carries on her legacy through Centenary Action, will be a professional advisor alongside our curatorial panel which will include Pamela Greenwood, Art Historian and Curator of Wimbledon Museum, Yamsin Jones Henry, Financial Times Writer and Cultural Placeshaping Strategist, Sabine Taal, a Dutch Interior Designer and Philanthropist; Sarah Jane Moon, British New Zealand Award Winning Artist and Educator; and a Journalist/ Art critic to be announced shortly.

Additionally, we will also be arranging an educational events programme that will take place over the two-week exhibition, which will feature panels and performances by experts and artists.

Within this, there will be a private view which will be attended by VIP clients and collectors.

Our current dates of these events are:

Private View - Thursday 2nd July 2026

Talks Event - Friday 3rd July 2026

Finissage Coffee Afternoon - Saturday 11th July 2026 with more to be announced.

Our Professional Advisors and Curatorial Panel:

Helen Pankhurst: https://centenaryaction.co.uk/

Pamela Greenwood: https://wimbledonsociety.org.uk/museum/

Yasmin Jones Henry: https://www.yjhconsulting.com/about-yjh

Sabine Taal: https://www.houseandsoul.design/about

Sarah Jane Moon: https://sarahjanemoon.com/