NEAC Artist Scholarships

Overview

The New English Art Club (NEAC) offers three annual scholarships worth £7,000 in total, aimed at early-career artists living in Great Britain and working in figurative painting, drawing or printmaking. Early-career status is defined as anyone who feels they are at the beginning stages of their professional artistic career, regardless of age (applicants must be 18+). The scholarships support those who have not historically engaged with the NEAC and face financial barriers in pursuing the arts professionally.

Scholarships

• Ken Howard Foundation Scholarship: £5,000 prize (paid in two instalments), one year of close mentorship with NEAC leading figures, free entry to all NEAC classes and workshops, and display of selected work at NEAC Annual Exhibition 2027
• Two Daler-Rowney Scholarships: £1,000 each (£500 cash + £500 Daler-Rowney art materials voucher), one year of mentorship, free entry to classes and workshops, and display at NEAC Annual Exhibition 2027

Key Dates

• Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 15 May 2026
• Shortlisted candidates notified: Friday 29 May by noon
• Interview: Thursday 4 June at Mall Galleries
• Decision announced: Friday 5 June
• Awards ceremony: Wednesday 10 June, 7:30pm at Mall Galleries

Eligibility

Early-career artists aged 18 and over living in Great Britain, working in figurative painting, drawing or printmaking. Early-career artists include anyone who feels they are at the beginning stages of their professional artistic career, regardless of age.

Application Fee

There is a £10 application fee to help cover administrative costs. Fee waivers are available upon request for applicants facing financial hardship.

How to Apply

Create your portfolio in any suitable program (Word, Google Docs, PowerPoint, Keynote, Canva) and save as PDF (maximum 10MB). Save the file as: surname-firstname.pdf. We recommend landscape format for viewing on desktop.

Portfolio Requirements

• Four questions to answer: (1) When did you first start drawing, painting or printmaking with a view to possibly taking it further? (2) How much time are you able to find for your artistic practice every week and what difference would winning this scholarship make to your current situation? (3) How would you spend the scholarship money and where do you hope to see your artistic practice developing over the next few years? (4) What in particular about the NEAC drew you to apply for our scholarship?
• Up to 6 images of your work (one image per page)
• Maximum 350 words combined for all question answers

Acknowledgements

Grateful thanks to the Ken Howard Foundation, the Tantam Family Charitable Foundation, and Daler-Rowney for supporting the 2026–27 NEAC Scholarships.