GRANTS FOR ART HISTORY

To further our mission to advance the study and practice of art history, the Association for Art History offer grants of up to £1,000 which provide support to aid scholarly research, to develop professional practice and to further the teaching and learning of art history at all education levels.

What we fund:

Grants to aid scholarly research include support for:

– Symposia, conferences and workshops
– Travel to libraries, archives and collections
– Delivery of research findings at conferences
– Catalogues and public engagement programmes for exhibitions
– Access to images controlled by third party rights holders

Grants to develop professional practice within art history include:

– Participation in museum and gallery training programmes in curatorial and public engagement areas

Grants to support the teaching and learning of art history in schools include:

– Teachers’ continuing professional development
– Formal and informal learning opportunities for students

Please complete the relevant application form and equality & diversity monitoring form, available to download and return to grants@forarthistory.org.uk.

We hold two rounds of applications a year, deadlines are in September and January.

Applicants will be notified of the results of their applications two months after the date of application deadline for the September round, and one month after the application deadline for the January round. As such, the grant period for this round of grants will effectively begin on 1st March 2026. 

Next application deadline: 5pm, 30 September 2026.

For further information see our Funding FAQs.

• Scholarly research form
• Professional practice form
• Teaching and learning form
• EDI-Monitoring-Form_Applications-2023-FINAL

BURSARIES FOR ART HISTORY 

Annual Conference Bursaries for Doctoral and Early Career Researchers

These bursaries support doctoral and early career researchers in art history and visual culture to attend the Association for Art History’s Annual Conference.

The Association for Art History offers competitive bursaries each year to enable doctoral and early career researchers to attend the Annual Conference in person. The 2026 Annual Conference will take place at the University of Cambridge, 8–10 April 2026.

The bursaries are assessed by the Association for Art History’s Doctoral and Early Career Research (DECR) Committee. They are available to speakers, session panel organisers, and non-speakers who would benefit from attending this international academic conference, which features world-class research.

The DECR Committee aims to provide a supportive platform for current doctoral researchers and those within five years of receiving their PhD. The committee works with undergraduate, postgraduate, and emerging scholars to support the presentation and development of new research.

Who can apply

Applicants must:
• Be current doctoral or early career researchers (within five years of PhD completion)
• Be studying art history in its broadest sense
• Be current members of the Association for Art History
• Demonstrate how they would benefit from attending the conference

Applicants may apply to either the bursary scheme or the grants scheme. Applications to both will not be considered.

How to apply

Applicants are required to:
• Complete the proposal form
• Complete and include the EDI monitoring form
• Email both forms to the DECR team

Applications must be submitted by email with the subject line: DECR Annual Conference Bursary.

Application deadline: Friday 16 January 2026
Notification of outcome: Beginning of March 2026

If an application is unsuccessful, early-booking ticket rates will be honoured for unsuccessful applicants.

Calls for applications are announced on social media and in our Latest News. For further information, please contact the DECR team.

UNDERGRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE DISSERTATION PRIZES

This prize is for undergraduate (BA) dissertations in art history or visual culture.

The Association for Art History Dissertation Prize is awarded each year. There are two awards: one for undergraduate dissertations and one for postgraduate (Master’s-level) dissertations. 

The authors of the winning entry will receive:
• £50 worth of book tokens
• Association for Art History student membership for one year
• Complimentary ticket to the Annual Conference
• Publication of a 300-word abstract of the winning entry online and in e-newsletter
• Your prize will be formally awarded and announced at the annual conference

Nomination and submission deadlines for the undergraduate dissertation prize are usually in August, and for the postgraduate dissertation prize, they are usually early December. 

Calls for submissions are announced on social media and in our Latest News.

Dissertation Prizes are assessed and shortlisted by our Doctoral and Early Career Research (DECR) Network Project Board.

UNDERGRADUATE VIDEO PRIZE

This prize is open to UK undergraduate students studying art history or visual culture.

We invite students to create short videos (up to 90 seconds) reflecting on their experience of studying art history. Videos can cover any aspect of their studies.

The aim of the prize is to highlight the value of studying art history and to share real student experiences with prospective students.

Videos can be simple and creative—professional production values are not required, and filming on a phone is fine. One winner and two highly commended entries will be selected.

Winning videos will be announced and screened at the Association’s Ways of Seeing conference held at the National Gallery, London, in November. They will also be shared on the Association’s website and YouTube channel. Travel costs to London will be reimbursed for students coming from outside the city.

Calls for submissions are announced in October on social media and in our Latest News

CURATORIAL PRIZES

The Association for Art History seeks to acknowledge the achievements and contributions of curators in public museums and galleries in the UK by awarding annual prizes in the following key areas: exhibitions, collections display, and publications. The prizes recognise the essential work of curators in creating knowledge and sharing research with varied audiences, as well as in providing expertise about collections and the history of art more generally.

Prizes will be awarded annually to curators or teams of curators whose work in museums and galleries has best demonstrated excellence, originality, contemporary relevance and public value. The prize-winners will be selected by a panel of leading figures in the field. 

Details of the 2025 prize winners can be found here.

2026 Curatorial Prize Judging Panel

Exhibitions and Displays:

• Caroline Campbell – Director, National Gallery of Ireland
• Tristram Hunt – Director, V&A Museum
• Sarah Munro – Artistic Director/CEO, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
• Sook-Kyung Lee – Director, Whitworth Art Gallery and Professor of Curatorial Practice, The University of Manchester

Curatorial Writing and Publications:

• Gillian Malpas – CEO, Modern Art Press 
• Christine Riding – Director of Collections and Research, National Gallery
• Fatoş Üstek – Independent Curator and Writer 
• Kamini Vellodi – Head of Painting, Royal College of Art

The application deadline for the 2026 awards, for projects which debuted in 2025, is Friday 6 March 2026.

Details of the 2026 Curatorial Prize here.

ART HISTORY RESIDENCY

The Art History Residency supports a researcher in art history or visual culture by providing dedicated time and space to further their work.

The Association for Art History and the Ampersand Foundation award the Art History Residency annually. The residency offers a researcher the opportunity for concentrated time at Wigwell Lodge in the Derbyshire countryside. The 2025-2026 Art History Residency:

Resident  Victoria Horne
Assistant Professor of Art History, Northumbria School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries, Northumbria University

The residency will run from October 2025 to January 2026.

Victoria’s research during the residency will focus on Mainie Jellett and her pivotal role in the Irish Modernist movement. This project examines how three concurrent revolutions – national, feminist, aesthetic – overlapped in the life of Jellett and her wider circle. Victoria commented: “I’m delighted to have the chance to spend some time quietly thinking about a project on Irish women artists, which charts a new direction in my research. And I’m looking forward to stomping about the Derbyshire countryside and seeing a new part of the world I’m not familiar with. I’m very grateful to the AAH and the Ampersand Foundation for the lovely opportunity.”

Gregory Perry, CEO of the Association for Art History, notes that: “Victoria’s research was the unanimous choice for this year’s very competitive residency award, with the panel excited that the residency provides an opportunity for her to take a compelling critical approach to original research into the Irish Modernist movement from a feminist perspective. The Association is very grateful to the Ampersand Foundation for helping us to  facilitate original art historical research and assist scholarship in this way.”

The resident will receive:
•  A funded research residency at Wigwell Lodge
• Dedicated time for concentrated research
• Support from the Association for Art History and the Ampersand Foundation
• An invitation to deliver an Association for Art History lecture on completion of the residency

Calls for applications for the Art History Residency are announced on social media and in our Latest News.