The Useful and Beautiful Art Prize is a new award established by the William Morris Society to celebrate and support emerging artists, designers, and craftspeople whose work reflects the ideas and ideals of William Morris. The Prize is guided by Morris’s belief that art is both Useful and Beautiful, inseparable from everyday life, work, and nature.

It is guided by the following quotes and principles drawn from his writing and practice:

• “Art has remembered the people, because they created.”
• “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”  
• "Wherever nature works there will be beauty"  
• “Art should not be separate from life, but embedded within it”
• "Art made by the people, for the people, as a joy to the maker and the user."
• “Artists cannot help themselves; they are driven to create by their nature, but for that nature to truly thrive, we need to preserve the precious habitat in which that beauty can flourish.”

The Useful and Beautiful Prize aims to:

• Support and showcase emerging artists, designers, and makers
• Encourage work rooted in craft, process, usefulness, and meaning
• Reconnect Morris’s ideas with contemporary practice and lived experience   
• Provide a national platform for crafters and creatives
• Promote sustainability, care, and material awareness in making
• Promote the objects of the charity; to share knowledge of the life and works of William Morris to a global audience and to preserve the house and collection in perpetuity

It asks a simple but poignant question: What does it mean today to make things that are both useful and beautiful?

Entrants may submit work across any of the following broad themes:

1. Craft & Material – hands-on making rooted in material knowledge and process, including but not limited to: textiles, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, woodworking, stained glass, furniture craft and natural dyes.  
2. Pattern & Design – artwork, design, illustration, interior design or digital work informed by the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
3. Nature, Sustainability & Environment – work engaging with natural materials, ecological awareness, sustainability, or environmental themes inspired by Morris’s relationship with nature.
4. Literature & Creative Writing – poetry, fiction, essay, and other writing that reflects Morris's belief that art and politics are inseparable, including themes of work, craft, community, and social reform. 

Each submission must include:

• Digital images of the work (3-4 images; maximum size each 4MB, JPEG or PNG format).
• A written statement of no more than one side of A4 (approximately 500 words) explaining how William Morris has inspired your work and how it engages with the Prize themes.
• A completed submission form, including the entrant’s name and contact details.

Submissions may be finished works or prototypes. All physical works must not exceed:

• 1 metre squared in overall dimensions (height x width), and
• 10 kg in weight.
• No live organic materials to be used, such as soil.
• AI usage prohibited. Entries using AI will be disqualified.

Entrants may submit up to two works for consideration. Each work requires a separate submission form and statement.

Important:

Please make sure you read the FAQs for further information and Terms and Conditions. 

The Prize is administered by the William Morris Society (“the Organiser”), a registered charity in England and Wales.