Rory Pilgrim and Hayley Tompkins land £75,000 Hamlyn awards

Turner prize nominee Rory Pilgrim and Venice Biennale artist Hayley Tompkins are among ten recipients of this year's Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists, each carrying £75,000 in unrestricted funding. Five artists and five composers received the prize.

The timing matters. The awards arrive amid the ongoing cost of living crisis, and the foundation's no-strings model stands out in a funding landscape (the ecosystem of grants and commissions supporting UK artists) usually tied to specific projects or outcomes.

"Unique in its no-strings-attached funding model, the [Hamlyn] awards for artists allows recipients to use their award as they wish, providing them the freedom to develop their creative ideas, alleviating the pressures they may be facing," the foundation says in a press statement.

Who are the winning artists?

Tompkins showed in the Scotland + Venice exhibition in 2013 as part of a trio alongside Corin Sworn and Duncan Campbell. Her installations combine painting with found objects, digital films, photography and furniture.

"It still hasn't felt real yet, but I do know with more resources there will be room for me to feel and move a bit differently now," Tompkins says in a statement.

Pilgrim, born in Bristol, was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2023 for the commission RAFTS, staged at Serpentine Galleries and Barking Town Hall. Their work explores how "activism, spirituality and music can create spaces for connection", the foundation's statement adds.

"After working on many intensive processes, [the award] gives invaluable breathing space, autonomy and financial security to find joy and excitement in creativity," Pilgrim says.

The other artist recipients this year:

• Georgina Starr, known for performance works such as Androgynous Egg (2017)
• Racheal Crowther, an artist born in Dublin
• Linda Bell, a learning disabled artist

The judging panel included Joe Hill, director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Melissa Blanchflower, senior curator at Turner Contemporary in Margate; and Sheryll Catto, artistic director of ActionSpace.

What does the award change for the composers?

Five composers were recognised alongside the visual artists, including Daudi Matsiko and Ayanna Witter-Johnson. For them, as for the visual artists, the money comes without a deliverable attached — no premiere, no commission, no reporting requirement beyond the freedom to spend it as they wish.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation has run the awards since 1994. In that time it has made 377 awards to artists, distributing more than £12m in total. Previous recipients include Phyllida Barlow, Yinka Shonibare and Alberta Whittle — a list that tracks closely with later institutional recognition, from Turner nominations to Biennale representation.

That track record is the quiet argument behind this year's round: unrestricted cash, given early enough, tends to compound.