RSA Barns-Graham Travel Award: Deadline: Sunday 23 March 2025, 5pm

  • About

    Richard Goldsworthy, Palace Walls

    About

    The RSA Barns-Graham Travel Award (£2,000) provides a travel and research opportunity for graduating and postgraduate students. Funded by the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and administered by the Royal Scottish Academy, the award consists of:

     

    • A monetary award of £2,000 to fund a period of travel outside the UK for the research and development of a new body of work
    • An exhibition of selected completed work at the Royal Scottish Academy at a future date.
    • The donation of work into the prestigious RSA Permanent Collections, 'A Recognised Collection of National Significance to Scotland'.
  • Eligibility

    Laura Compton, Uncanny Cave, soft sculpture, chicken wire, mod-roc, paint and unglazed ceramic

    Eligibility

    • Entrants must be painters, printmakers or sculptors.
    • Entrants must either be undergraduates graduating in summer 2025 or currently studying at postgraduate level at one of the following Scottish art schools: Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, Duncan of Jordanstone Collage of Art, Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, and University of the Highlands & Islands.

     

    How to apply

     

    Application has closed for 2025.

     

    We are pleased to announce this years winner is Laura Compton. Laura will use the award to travel to Slovenia to visit the Škocjan Caves. Through producing soundscapes and even smell-scapes, she hopes to create an immersive sculptural experience which engages the senses in the same way as an actual cave. 

     

     Contact Us

     
  • Previous winners

    Paige Silverman, Aggregate, detail from mixed media installation [2023.003]

    Previous winners

    • Laura Compton, 2025
    • Madeleine Marg, 2024
    • Felicity White, 2023
    • Guendalina Rota and Charlotte Maishman, 2022
    • Paige Silverman, 2021
    • Natasha Jensen, 2020
    • Richard Goldsworthy, 2019
    • Shipei Wang, 2018
    • Mina Heydari-Waite, 2016
    • Tim Sandys, 2015
    • Alice Hoskins, 2014
    • Gabriele Jogelaite, 2013
    • Madeline Mackay, 2012
    • Aleksandra Zawada, 2011
    • Geri Loup Nolan, 2010
    • Martin Hill, 2009
    • Gemma Saville, 2008
    • Mair Hughes, 2007
    • Margaret Bathgate, 2006
  • About Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE HRSA

    Aleksandra Zawada, Yue I (Minjun) For Giorgio, 2011, blackboard paint, correction fluid on found canvas wrapped in nylonblackboard paint, correction fluid on found canvas wrapped in nylon [2013.014]

    About Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE HRSA

    Wilhelmina Barns-Graham HRSA was born in 1912 in St Andrews, Fife. After attending Edinburgh College of Art (1932-37) she moved to St. Ives in 1940, quickly becoming part of the group which included Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. She was a founder member of the Penwith Society. She travelled regularly over the next 20 years – Switzerland, Italy, Paris, and Spain. With the exception of a short teaching term at Leeds School of Art (1956 – 57) and three years in London (1960 – 63) she lived and worked in St Ives with regular stays in St Andrews where, in 1992, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University. In 1999 she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy and The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW); she also received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter and in 2001 she was awarded CBE. Her paintings can be found in public collections throughout the UK including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Arts Council of Great Britain, British Museum, the Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Leeds and Manchester City Art Galleries.

     

    For further information visit The Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust website.

     

    Banner image: Shipei Wang, I hear of nothing but a high-pitched screaming silence (detail), acrylic

  • Return to Opportunities
  • Works accessioned to the RSA Collections from past RSA Barns-Graham Award winners
    Mair Hughes, Dome, 2008-16, digital c-type print [2016.097] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Paige Silverman, Aggregate (detail) (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Natasha Faye Jensen, Gazing the Hothouse 2 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Gabriele Jogelaite, Tide, hard ground etching and sugar lift [2015.009] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Madeline Mackay, Skarv, 2012, ink [2014.654] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Richard Goldsworthy, Palace Walls, 2020 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Shipei Wang, I Hear a Dense Silence, acrylic on silk [2019.128] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Aleksandra Zawada, Yue I (Minjun) For Giorgio, 2011, blackboard paint, correction fluid on found canvas wrapped in nylonblackboard paint, correction fluid on found canvas wrapped in nylon [2013.014] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Alice Hoskins, Dang, 2014-15, screenprint [2015.074] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Tim Sandys, North Platte, NE, 2015-16, still from film [2019.045] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Mair Hughes, Dome, 2008-16, digital c-type print [2016.097]