The Paul Hamlyn Foundation announced the eight recipients of its 2012 Awards for Artists programme on Friday 1st November. The Awards are made to support artists at timely points in their careers, providing them with the freedom to develop their creative ideas and contributing to their personal and professional growth.

The funding comes with ‘no strings attached’ – the recipient is given full autonomy to decide how the Award can best support their life and creative practice. It is the most generous support of its kind in the UK, and has recently been increased from £45,000 to £50,000 over three years.

This year’s recipients are:

PHF Awards for Visual Arts:

•      Elizabeth Price 
•      Ed Atkins
•      Pavel Büchler
•      Andy Holden
•      Lis Rhodes

PHF Awards for Composers:

•      Steve Beresford
•      Eliza Carthy
•      Edmund Finnis

The Awards were presented by PHF Chair Jane Hamlyn, who also chairs the Visual Arts judging panel. She said:

“Since 1994, PHF has given nearly £4m to artists and composers – to buy some time, pay some bills, dream some dreams. It’s one of the best investments we’ve made.”

The PHF Awards are given annually to five visual artists and three composers. They provide no-strings funding over three years, with the aim simply to support artists at timely moments in their careers so that they have the freedom to develop their work without financial constraint.

Previous recipients of the Awards include Mark Leckey, Tomma Abts, Jeremy Deller, Ben Rivers and Rose Wylie (visual arts), Anna Meredith, Emily Howard and Evan Parker (composers). In all, over 100 individual artists have been supported through the scheme. In 2011/12, the Awards were evaluated for their impact. The report found that the scheme provided valuable support and had made significant impact on artists’ lives and practices. Following the report, PHF trustees agreed to increase the total funding for each artist from £45,000 to £50,000.

Elizabeth Price said in response to this award:

“The Paul Hamlyn Foundation is unique in supporting an artist’s development rather than a project and as such it will benefit the most experimental aspects of my process, enabling me to exercise increased artistic freedom, whilst intensifying production. It will make a huge difference to me, and to my work as an artist.”

More information on the Awards, current and previous recipients, and examples of work, can be found at http://www.phf.org.uk/artists

More information on the Paul Hamlyn Foundation can be found at http://www.phf.org.uk or via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/phf_uk