Our Awards celebrate the successes and diversity of artistic projects in religious buildings throughout Britain. We also have an award for a book which explores the dialogue between the visual arts and religion.
About our Awards
The A+C Awards were set up in 2003 to celebrate the exceptional quality of art and scholarship in religious art and design in the UK; they are open to all faiths.
We have two Art Awards: one for a permanent commission in a place of worship; and one for a temporary installation or exhibition in a place of worship.
All winning and shortlisted permanent works from the Art Awards over the last 6 years are listed on our Ecclesiart pages. Previous winners include Tracy Emin, Stephen Cox, and Maciej Urbanek.
We also give a Book Award for an outstanding contribution to the public understanding of the relationship between faith and art.
The Awards are next due to be given in 2025.
The A+C Book Award 2021
The winner of the 2021 A+C Book Award was announced on 25 November by Lord (Richard) Harries of Pentregarth at the Swiss Church in Covent Garden.
Alec Hamilton was presented with a cheque for £1000 for his stunning compendium of Arts & Crafts Churches published by Lund Humphries in 2020. Richard Harries praised the book for its ‘genuinely pioneering work, which is both scholarly and readable’.
Also shortlisted:
Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe by Diana Darke (Hurst, 2020)
Visions of Heaven: Dante and the Art of Divine Light by Martin Kemp (Lund Humphries, 2021)
The judging panel:
Chair: The Rt Revd Lord (Richard) Harries of Pentregarth (author and broadcaster)
Jill Cook (Curator at the British Museum)
Sir Simon Jenkins (journalist, author and broadcaster)
Dr Amanda Mbuzi (Vice President for Academic Affairs at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College)
Prof. Dr Mia M Mochizuki (formerly tenured Associate Professor of Renaissance and Baroque Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, New York, and NYU Abu Dhabi)
Criteria:
The subject matter may relate to any major religious tradition and to any visual medium (including film, performance arts, design and architecture).
Entries should be written in or translated into English. They may be in hardback or paperback.
Entries must have been published between in the last three years.
Winners of the 2019 Awards
The A+C Award for art in a religious context
The judging panel was chaired by Olivia Horsfall Turner, Senior Curator at the V&A, writer and broadcaster.
The Award is judged in two categories, one for temporary installations and exhibitions, one for permanent new commissions.
In the permanent category:
Stephen Owen, Prayer Chapel Communion Table and Lectern for Guildford Baptist Church, 2016
Others shortlisted:
Chris Eckersley and Gareth Neil, Re-ordering of sanctuary at Our Lady of Victories, Kensington, 2017
DaeWha Kang, The Regeneration of St Andrew’s Holborn, 2019
Ptolemy Mann, Oceanic Ray, a glass installation for St Peter’s Battersea, 2018
Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, The Eternal Engine, reredos for St Francis, Tottenham Hale, 2017
2019 permanent category winner - Stephen Owen, Prayer Chapel Communion Table and Lectern for Guildford Baptist Church, 2016
In the temporary category:
Jake Lever, Soul Boats at Birmingham Cathedral, 2015-16
Others shortlisted:
Pete Codling, Soup of Souls at Portsmouth Cathedral, 2019
Arabella Dorman, Suspended at St James’ Piccadilly, 2017
Michael Magruder, Lamentation for the Forsaken at St Stephen Walbrook, 2016
Julie Marsh, Assembly at Brick Lane Mosque, 2019
The judging panel:
Olivia Horsfall Turner (chair), Senior Curator at the V&A, writer and broadcaster
Sussan Babaie, Andrew W. Mellon Reader in the Arts of Iran and Islam, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Laura Gascoigne, art critic of The Tablet and The Spectator
Alastair Gordon, artist and Co-Founder of Morphe Arts
Matthew Saunders, former Director of The Friends of Friendless Churches
2019 temporary category winner: Jake Lever, Soul Boats at Birmingham Cathedral, 2015-16
The A+C Book Award 2019
Winner: Ittai Weinryb, Agents of Faith (Yale University Press, 2018)
Others shortlisted:
Jonathan A Anderson & William Dyrness, Modern Art and the Life of a Culture (Intervarsity Press, 2016)
T J Clark, Heaven on Earth (Thames & Hudson, 2018)
Thomas Crow, No Idols: The Missing Theology of Art (Power Polemics, 2016)
Neil MacGregor, Living with the Gods (BBC/Allen Lane, 2018)
Chloë Reddaway, Strangeness and Recognition (Brepols, 2019)
The judging panel:
Sir Charles Saumarez Smith (chair)
Michael Symmons Roberts, poet, writer and broadcaster
Rupert Shortt, Religion Editor of the Times Literary Supplement
Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James Piccadilly
Previous Awards
The ACE/Mercers’ Book Award 2017
2017 Winner:
Natasha O’Hear and Anthony O’Hear Picturing the Apocalypse
The judges...admired its tight, elegant and eloquent structure, its liveliness and accessibility, its timeliness and its originality and analysis of imagery and idea. ― ACE/Mercers Book Award press release
Picturing the Apocalypse
The ACE Award for art in a religious context 2015
Winner: Maciej Urbanek, HS, St Michael’s Camden
Also shortlisted:
David Behar Perahia, Invisible Structura, residency at Gloucester Cathedral
Antonia Hockton, The River of Life, St George’s Church, Great Bromley
John Maddison, Reredos, Ely Cathedral
Nick Mynheer and Roger Wagner, window, aumbry and font cover at St Mary’s Iffley
Bill Viola and Kira Perov, Martyrs, St Paul’s Cathedral
The ACE/RIBA Award for Religious Architecture 2015
Winner: The Chapel at Shepherd's Law, Alnwick WHR Pattisson Chartered Architect
Also shortlisted:
Niall McLaughlin Architects, Bishop Edward King Chapel, Ripon College Cuddesdon
Simpson & Brown, Chapel of St Albert the Great, Order of Preachers, Edinburgh
Tectus Architecture, Kingston Quaker Centre
Theis & Khan Architects, Wanstead United Reformed Church
Walker Cunnington Architects, St Giles Church, Pontefract
The judging panel:
Matthew Rice (chair), illustrator and author;
Gillian Darley, writer, broadcaster and biographer
Tom Jarman, partner at Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios
The Right Reverend Stephen Platten, Rector of St Michael Cornhill and Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of London
Dr Otto Saumarez Smith, architectural historian