The OUP Pirye Prize (value: £1,000) is an annual commission open to 2nd year students from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. It provides an opportunity for students to experience the whole process of turning an original concept into a site-specific work, transforming their initial ideas into actual works of art and finally exhibiting their pieces as public art in the OUP Bookshop on the High Street in Oxford.

Running for the past twelve years, the Pirye Prize was named after Dr Pirye, an early 16th century tenant of the Bookshop site and the judging panel has included well-known names of the art world including Adrian Searle, Andrew Wilson, Sarah Kent, Ossian Ward. This year’s invited judge was Jackie Wullschlager, chief art critic of Financial Times, along with Kevin Brown from OUP.