NEAC Artist Scholarships

The New English Art Club (NEAC) Scholarships are aimed at early-career artists* living in Great Britain and 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 (although applicants must be aged 18 and over).

The three annual scholarships, worth £7,000 in total, are aimed at individuals who have not historically had many opportunities to engage with the NEAC and are intended to support those who face financial barriers in pursuing the arts professionally.

In an art education landscape where many traditional art schools have pivoted away from practice and skills, these scholarships offer a rare opportunity to draw on the experience and expertise of some of the best painters in the country.

Applications for the NEAC 2026–27 Scholarships are now open

The 2026–27 NEAC Scholarships include:

The Ken Howard Foundation Scholarship, which offers:

• £5,000 scholarship prize, paid in two instalments, to facilitate the artistic development of an early-career artist

• A year of close mentorship with leading figures of the NEAC

• Free entry to all classes and workshops run by the NEAC

• A selection of the scholar's work created during the scholarship year will be displayed at the NEAC Annual Exhibition 2027 at Mall Galleries.

Two Daler-Rowney Scholarships, which each offer:

• £1,000 scholarship prize, made up of £500 cash and a £500 voucher to be spent on Daler-Rowney art materials

• A year of mentorship with leading figures of the NEAC

• Free entry to all classes and workshops run by the NEAC

• A selection of the scholar's work created during the scholarship year will be displayed at the NEAC Annual Exhibition 2027 at Mall Galleries.

It is hoped that successful applicants will continue to engage with the NEAC beyond the scholarship year.

There is a £10 application fee to help cover the NEAC's administrative costs related to the scholarships. Please ensure you meet the eligibility criteria as outlined above before making payment.

We recognise that some applicants may face financial hardship. If the £10 fee would genuinely prevent you from applying, please contact the NEAC to request a fee waiver and they will be in touch.

After making payment, you will be redirected to a page with instructions on how to complete your application. NB: You will not be emailed the link to this page so it is important that you bookmark/copy/save the link to ensure you can return to your application later if needed.

Portfolio Instructions and Guidelines

You can create your application portfolio in any suitable program/app you are familiar with (e.g. Word, Google Docs, PowerPoint, Keynote, Canva) then save your presentation as a PDF (max file size 10MB). When you save the file, please use the following naming convention: surname-firstname.pdf. If your file is over 10MB, please resave it at a lower resolution. The judges will view the applications on screen so it doesn’t need to be print resolution. We recommend you make your presentation landscape format as most of the judges will be looking at the applications on a desktop computer.

The first page of the PDF should include your name and your answers to the following questions:

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?

NB: Maximum total combined word count for all questions is 350 words.

The subsequent pages should feature images of up to 6 examples of your work:

• One image per page (nice and big please so the judges can see it clearly)

• You may (if you wish) add a short caption under each image (e.g. title, medium, brief description)

• Maximum of 6 images, so your PDF should be no longer than 7 pages (i.e. 1-page text + 6 images).

Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 15 May 2026

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