ABOUT THE AWARD
The Elizabeth Lornie Photography Award (£5,000) is for artists working in photography in Scotland. The award is funded by Elizabeth Lornie’s Charitable Trust (formally The Morton Charitable Trust) and administered by the Royal Scottish Academy and consists of:
- Monetary award to research, develop and produce a new body of work in photography.
- Exhibition of selected completed work, along with other RSA winners, at the Royal Scottish Academy at a future date.
- Acquisition of work into the prestigious RSA Permanent Collections.
ELIGIBILITY
- Artists must be working in still photography (includes digital & analogue)
- Artists must have been born in Scotland, or have studied at a Scottish art school, or have been resident in Scotland for at least 3 years.
- Undergraduate or postgraduate students are not eligible.
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY
- Entry conditions and requirements must be strictly adhered to or applications may be rejected.
- A shortlist of artists will be invited to present their project to the Panel of Adjudicators on Monday 9 November 2026.
- The decision of the adjudicators is final and no correspondence can be entered into.
- The award should not be used as a capital grant.
- The award winner will be announced by the end of November 2026.
- The award should be completed by November 2027.
- The winner will exhibit selected resulting work at the RSA the following year in consultation with the Academy. Further arrangements will be determined in consultation with the winner.
- The Royal Scottish Academy reserves the right to accession one representative work from the artist into the RSA Permanent Collection.
- The copyright of all works remain with the artist but it is a condition of entry that the Royal Scottish Academy reserves the right of reproduction of all submitted and resultant works for publicity/educational/reference purposes in connection with the award.
- Personal information supplied by applicants on registration/application forms will be held securely by the Royal Scottish Academy in accordance with The EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
APPLICATION
The application requires the following:
- Contact information
- Artist Statement (max. 100 words, about your artistic practice)
- Up to 5 key artistic achievements (max. 150 words, noting projects/exhibitions/awards or other achievements)
- Summary of post-secondary education (date commenced, date completed, course details & qualifications; institution)
- 25 word summary of proposed project
- Desired travel destination (only if applicable to the project)
- Proposed project start and end date
- Proposal (max. 300 words, about your proposed project)
- Supporting visual material: you may submit a maximum of 6 JPEGS.
CRITERIA
Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:
- Coherency of proposed project and the potential to further develop and enhance practice.
- Quality of visual material (please note that a crucial part of the selection process is based on the review of applicants’ visual material and as such we strongly encourage applicants to submit the highest quality visual material.
DEADLINE
The deadline for applying to this award is Sunday 20 September 2026, 5pm.
The RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Painting Award (£20,000) provides an extensive development and production opportunity for a fine art painter. The aim of the award is to enable a committed painter to devote themselves exclusively to painting for an extended period of time, which they would otherwise not be able to do, due to other commitments such as employment or caring responsibilities. The award is funded by the RSA Blackadder Houston Bequest, administered by the Royal Scottish Academy.
ELIGIBILITY
- Entrants must be mid-career painters who are at least 15 years out of art school or can demonstrate at least 15 years of substantive practice.
- Entrants must not currently be studying.
- The entrant's practice must be predominantly based in painting; this can be in any medium or subject.
- Entrants must have been born or are currently living in Scotland (and have been for at least 3 years consecutively).
- Entrants must be able to devote themselves exclusively to painting for a period of up to 26 weeks; for example, by taking a sabbatical from employment, or by taking a break from caring responsibilities.
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY
- Entry conditions and requirements must be strictly adhered to or applications may be rejected.
- The decision of the adjudicators is final and no correspondence can be entered into.
- The award funds can be used for anything that directly enables the winner to produce painting(s) (e.g. studio time, travel, living costs that allow the winner to take the necessary time out to create/produce; but the award should not be put towards framing costs and capital investment (e.g. camera, computer software, new studio kit).
- In the case of taking a sabbatical, proof from employer of agreement to this must be provided to the RSA prior to the allocation of funds.
- The award winner will be announced by end of December 2026 and the award should be completed within a 12-month period, beginning with the start of the project. The painter may take their break from employment/childcare etc. all at once, or in separate stages – provided it occurs within 12 months of its inception.
- The RSA will have regular contact with the winner during the 12-month period.
- The winner will be expected to submit a short report to the RSA which may be shared with the Blackadder Houston Trustees. This report must be submitted within 6 weeks of completion of the award.
- The copyright of all works remains with the artist, but it is a condition of entry that the Royal Scottish Academy reserves the right of reproduction of all submitted and resultant works for publicity/educational/reference purposes in connection with the award and opportunities programme.
- Personal information supplied by applicants on application forms will be held securely by the Royal Scottish Academy in accordance with The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Applicants will be assessed against the following criteria:
- Someone that the judges consider would truly benefit from the opportunities that the funding might bring.
- Coherency of proposed research and the potential to further develop and enhance their practice.
- Strong evidence the artist’s practice falls within the discipline of painting and mid-career status.
- Quality of visual material submitted *
* Please note that a crucial part of the selection process is based on the review of applicant's visual material and as such we strongly encourage applicants to submit the highest quality visual material.
The online application will require applicants to submit the following:
- Artist statement (max 100 words)
- Up to 5 key artistic achievements (max 150 words)
- Summary of post school education
- 25-word summary of proposed research and production.
- A description of why the applicant needs this support to allow them to realise their artistic potential (max 100 words).
- Proposal (max 300 words) which gives an idea on what the artist hopes to achieve.
- CV
- A rough budget to show the use of funds.
- Up to 6 visuals of works already produced.
Application deadline:
Sunday 11 October 2026, 5pm
The Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL