Scott Creative Arts Foundation (SCAF) invites emerging artists living or working in Yorkshire to submit a proposal for an original artwork responding to this year’s theme: TENSION. Shortlisted works will be exhibited as part of our 2027 Emerging Artist Award.

Emerging Artist Award 2027: TENSION

Scott Creative Arts Foundation invites emerging artists to respond to the theme of Tension.  

The theme, TENSION, emerged whilst reflecting upon the legacy of the  Dean Clough Mill, the hosts of the Emerging Artist Award 2027 and once the largest Victorian carpet manufacturer in the world.

We imagined the tension of the threads woven into carpets; the rhythms and strains between workers and machinery; the tensions experienced by those of the fading textile industry in the area, alongside its release into the thriving mixed-use mill that it is today.

Tension can be as either a condition, a process or a lived experience.

Tension is a force held between bodies, materials, systems, histories and futures.

It is both structural and emotional. Tension can be a pull that stretches and resists or a force that can bind, forge and overcome limits.

Tension also plays a role in artistic labour, embedded within the rhythms of work and the pressures of production. It can be cumulative, invisible or striking.

Artists might consider:

• The physical properties of tension
• The body under pressure and 
• Institutions or systems of production
• Biological and physical tension
• Social and political tensions
• Emotional or psychological tensions
• Acts of holding together or pulling apart

We encourage responses that engage with materiality and its social context.

Artists may choose to work with traditional techniques, disrupt them or translate their ideas into entirely different forms.  

We welcome proposals from a diverse range of contemporary practices, including but not limited to painting, sculpture, image, sound, video or graphics.

Due to spatial limitations, we will not be able to accept proposals for performance art.

This brief remains intentionally open.

Proposed artworks may seek to reveal tension, embody it or attempt to resolve it.

Rather than defining tension, we invite you to capture and reveal it to us, through your materials, your methods and your experiences.

Please note: Due to exhibition space restrictions, we cannot accept live performances, video projections, or sound-based artworks unless audio is played exclusively through headphones

Award Process

There are three stages to the award process:

1. Proposal – Submit a proposal using words and images to describe an original artwork you would create specifically for this award. (If shortlisted, you will be invited to become a finalist and to realise your proposal.)
2. Creation – If selected, produce the artwork according to your proposal. Final works must be delivered to Dean Clough by Saturday 26th June 2027.
3. Judging and Exhibition – The shortlisted artworks will form the Emerging Artist Award 2027 exhibition at Dean Clough, Halifax. A prize-giving will take place during the Open Evening on Thursday 1st July 2027, where the winner will be selected and announced by our panel of judges. The exhibition will be open to the public, daily at Dean Clough, from Friday 2nd July 2027 until Saturday 4th September 2027.

Please visit our Emerging Artist Award website to read our Terms and Conditions and to see examples of our past finalists.

About Us

The Scott Creative Arts Foundation’s Emerging Artist Award has been created to acknowledge emerging artists, of all ages, who are living or working in Yorkshire.

The award aims to spotlight outstanding contemporary artists in Yorkshire who are in the early stages of their career or have yet to gain recognition among art buyers, collectors, and critics.

SCAF will host the Emerging Artist Award 2027 exhibition to showcase the work of ten shortlisted artists at Dean Clough, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX3 5AX.

All exhibiting finalists will receive a prize sum of £175, with the exception of the winner of the Emerging Artist Award 2027, selected at the Open Evening, who will receive a prize sum of £1000.

The winner will also receive an offer from SCAF to purchase the winning artwork for our own collection.

All ten artist finalists will receive a permanent artist page on our website and benefit from access to SCAF facilities, free membership to the Sustainable Artist training programme by Ola David and inclusion in SCAFFOLD, our alumni collective.

Scott Creative Arts Foundation, The Art House, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 3AD

Scott Creative Arts Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales - Charity number 1168545.  

www.scottcreativeartsfoundation.org.uk

https://www.scafemergingartist.co.uk