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 Awards for Art in a Religious Context: one for a permanent commission within the building or grounds of a place of worship (£3,000); and one for a temporary installation or exhibition within the building or grounds of a place of worship (£3,000).
We also give a Book Award for an outstanding contribution to the public understanding of the relationship between faith and art (£1,000).
The Awards are next due to be launched in mid-September 2025. Please sign up for our e-newsletter to be kept informed.
We’re delighted to announce the judging panels for the Awards are:
For the Art Awards:
Bryan Biggs (Chair) – Director of Cultural Legacies, Bluecoat, Liverpool
The Singh Twins – artists
Nigel Prince – Director of Artes Mundi, Cardiff
The Rt Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett – Bishop of Croydon (Church of England)
Dr Maddie Hewitson – art historian specialising in nineteenth-century British art and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Birmingham.
For the Book Award:
Chine McDonald (Chair) is a writer, broadcaster, author and director of the think tank, Theos
Julian Bell is a painter whose work includes a sequence of panels based on the Book of Genesis, and a writer about contemporary and historical art in books such as What is Painting? (2017).
Dr Susanna Avery-Quash is Senior Research Lead for Partnerships, Networks, Initiatives at The National Gallery, London.
Dr Aaron Rosen is Executive Director of The Clemente Course in the Humanities, Visiting Professor at King’s College London, and Founder of The Parsonage Gallery.
Lieke Wijnia is an art historian and religious studies scholar, and works as Head of Research & Collections at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.
With thanks to the individual donors who have made the prizes for the Awards possible this year; And to our sponsors Ecclesiastical
Criteria
For the Art Awards:
The artwork submitted must be within the building or grounds owned or leased to an active faith community and completed in the last five years (since January 2020). The commission must be exemplary in its relationship to its context, its capacity to engage in the particular modes of worship and activities taking place within its environment. It can be in any medium.
For the Book Award:
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, paperback or e-book.
Entries must have been published in the last four years (since June 2021).
Entry forms
The entry closing date is Friday 31 October 2025 at 5pm.
Please complete your entry using the online form. To help you prepare your responses in advance, you can also download a copy of the full form as a reference document.
Art Awards
Book Award
The prize-giving event will be on 23 April 2026.
To pay the £40 entry fee (for both Art and Book Awards), please make a bank transfer to:
Account name: Art and Christianity
Account number: 70102008
Sort Code: 20-03-79
Reference: please state the first 2-3 words of the title of the artwork or the book.