All templates
Award & Recognition

Art Award Press Release Template and Example

A prize, fellowship, honour or shortlisting. The difficulty is tone: the news is genuinely good, and the temptation to celebrate is what makes most of these unpublishable.

The example

Maria Alvarez Awarded the Cardoso Prize for Material Practice

The £40,000 prize is awarded biennially to an artist working in textile, ceramic or fibre

Maria Alvarez has been awarded the 2026 Cardoso Prize for Material Practice. The £40,000 prize is awarded biennially to an artist working in textile, ceramic or fibre, and is the largest award of its kind in Europe.

The jury cited the artist's use of salvaged industrial material "as substance rather than as symbol," and described the recent weavings as "an argument about labour made in the material that labour produced."

The jury comprised the curator Elena Méndez, the writer Inés Cardoso and the artist Rosa Iglesias. Alvarez was selected from a shortlist of four, alongside Tomás Ferreiro, Ana Beltrán and the Taller Textil collective.

The prize includes a solo presentation at the Cardoso Foundation in autumn 2027. Alvarez will use the award to fund a period of research in the municipal archives at Piedras Negras.

Prize: Cardoso Prize for Material Practice, 2026

Value: £40,000, with a solo presentation at the Cardoso Foundation in autumn 2027

Jury: Elena Méndez, Inés Cardoso, Rosa Iglesias

Press enquiries and images: press@example-foundation.example

Every artist, gallery and institution in this example is invented.

Why it works

Quote the jury, not yourself

The jury citation is the only quote with authority in an award release. A recipient saying they are honoured adds nothing an editor will keep.

Name the shortlist

It is generous, it is what serious prizes do, and it gives editors covering the field more to work with. Suppressing the other names looks small.

Say what the money is for

A stated plan converts an award into a forthcoming project, which is a second story. Without it the news ends on the day it is announced.

Conventions
  • Give the prize value and how often it is awarded.
  • Quote the jury citation directly.
  • Name every juror.
  • Name the shortlist.
  • Say what happens next: exhibition, publication, research.
What gets it deleted
  • Describing the recipient as thrilled, honoured or humbled.
  • Omitting the prize value, which is how editors judge whether it is news.
  • Hiding the shortlist.
  • Announcing before the awarding body has, which happens more than it should.
Write yours

ArtWire writes this one for you

Nineteen categories, each with its own register, so an auction result does not read like a residency announcement. Free to start, no credit card.

Start freeSee it write one
All 15 templatesNext: Artist Residency