Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life at The Hepworth Wakefield Wins Two Association For Art History Curatorial Prizes
The Association for Art History has announced the winners of its 2025 Curatorial Prizes for exhibitions and for curatorial writing/publications.
For the first time, both prizes were awarded to curators for the same project. Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski with Head of Collection & Exhibitions Eleanor Clayton and Assistant Curator Farah Dailami won the exhibitions prize for Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life at The Hepworth Wakefield. The team also won the curatorial writing prize for the book of the same name which accompanied the exhibition.
The AAH curatorial prizes are selected by a panel of esteemed industry leaders, amongst them: Maria Balshaw (Director, Tate), Pio Abad (Artist), Sandy Nairne (Chair, Art Fund) and Luke Syson (Director, The Fitzwilliam Museum).
The winning exhibition, curated by Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski with Eleanor Clayton and Farah Dailami, was praised for how it illustrated the importance of the artist Ronald Moody, and his international art practice. The project was lauded for its exemplary presentation of Moody’s work, and it served as an important corrective within art history which rightly placed him alongside other great 20th century sculptors in Europe and in the USA.
The accompanying publication, Ronald Moody, Sculpting Life was supported by excellent research woven into a compelling narrative of the artist’s life and work. New insights from archival material and from personal recollections of those who knew Moody helped to make the book an excellent read and essential for the study of the artist.
The Exhibitions judging panel also highly commended curators for two further exhibitions:
Furnace Fruit at Leeds Art Gallery: Karanjit Panesar (artist), Holly Grange (Freelance Curator and former Exhibitions Curator, Leeds Art Gallery), Clare Nadal (Assistant Curator, Sculpture, Leeds Museums and Galleries / Henry Moore Institute) and Kenn Taylor (Lead Culture Producer North, British Library). The panel praised it for its great sense of place, within Leeds and the North of England and, beyond this, for effectively contextualising objects in the exhibition within Britain’s colonial and imperial histories.
Entangled Pasts: 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change at the Royal Academy: Dorothy Price (Professor at The Courtauld Institute of Art). Along with Cora Gilmore-Ware (Associate Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University) Esther Chadwick (Lecturer in Art History, The Courtauld Institute of Art) Sarah Lea (Curator at Royal Academy of Arts) Rose Thompson (Assistant Curator, Royal Academy of Arts) Alayo Akinkugbe (Independent Writer and Curator)The panel commended this powerful, visually engaging exhibition which was underpinned by important research and included in-gallery interpretation of the highest level.
The Association for Art History annual prizes acknowledge the achievements and contributions of art curators in public museums and galleries in the UK. They 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. Winners are selected by two expert panels – this year made up of:
Exhibitions panel
- Pio Abad – Artist
- Maria Balshaw – Director, Tate
- Antonia Bostrom – Independent, former Director of Collections, Victoria and Albert Museum
- Luke Syson – Director, The Fitzwilliam Museum
Curatorial Writing and Publications panel
- Partha Mitter – Emeritus Professor in Art History, University of Sussex
- Sandy Nairne – Chair, Art Fund
- Alison Smith – Director of Collections and Research, The Wallace Collection
- Sarah Victoria Turner – Director, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
Gregory Perry, CEO of the Association for Art History commented:
“The entries for the curatorial prizes this year reflect the great talent in the curatorial sector in the UK, and they represent significant achievements by curators at both major national and regional institutions. This made the panellists’ decisions difficult indeed as all were deserving of recognition. However, the Ronald Moody exhibition and book especially impressed the two panels which acknowledged not only its underlying research, but the effectiveness of the installation, and, importantly, how it gave Moody the recognition and placement within the history of art that he rightly deserves.”
Curatorial Prizes: Exhibition
This prize celebrates excellence in the curation of temporary exhibitions and their success in communicating art historical research to audiences. Key factors include the originality of the exhibition’s concept and the significance of the accompanying research, as well as the effectiveness and inspiring character of the show’s presentation and engagement with the public.
The awards are open to any temporary loan exhibition regardless of scale or budget. The exhibitions prize can be awarded to a single curator or a curatorial team who participated in the conception and realisation of an exhibition. To be eligible, an exhibition must have opened during the calendar year 2022 at a UK non-profit venue, or online, and have been organised or co-organised by UK-based curators.
Curatorial Prizes: Publication
This prize recognises publications of art historical significance produced by the museum and gallery sector. Submissions may be aimed at a general or specialist readership but should be grounded in original research. Published in 2022, eligible works may include exhibition catalogues, museum guides, monographs and articles, as well as other less traditional formats, and may be printed or digital. The panellists are looking to acknowledge and reward significant contributions to knowledge as well as public value.
Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life
The Hepworth Wakefield
22 June – 3 November 2024
Jamaican-born sculptor Ronald Moody is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. The major exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield, guest curated by Moody specialist Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, explored the development of Moody’s art as well as his contribution and impact on British and international art history.
The exhibition brought together over 50 Moody works from large scale figurative sculptures made in wood in the 1930s through to post-war experimentation with concrete and resin casting. These works were set within the context of his contemporaries Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, artists he exhibited alongside such as Eileen Agar and his friend Jacob Epstein, as well as the group known as the Caribbean Artists Movement of which Moody was a founding member.
Sculpting Life also included Moody’s broader creative endeavours such as poetry, writings, and audio broadcast that he turned to at the advent of the Second World War. This archive section was presented in a specially commissioned installation by Sheffield based artist Kedisha Coakley.
Karanjit Panesar: Furnace Fruit
Leeds Art Gallery
4 October 2024 – 15 June 2025
Leeds-based artist Karanjit Panesar is the recipient of the 2023/24 Collections in Dialogue co-commission between the British Library and Leeds Art Gallery which is awarded to an artist in the North of England to undertake research into the collections at both institutions and use this to produce work that creates a dialogue between them. Furnace Fruit presents a new body of work by the artist which stems from his research into the Leeds Sculpture Collections at Leeds Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institute, together with the oral history collections at the British Library and Bradford Industrial Museum.
Entangled Pasts, 1768–now: Art, Colonialism and Change
Royal Academy of Arts
3 February – 28 April 2024
The exhibition was curated by Dr Dorothy Price FBA, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History, The Courtauld Institute of Art, together with Dr Cora Gilroy-Ware, Associate Professor in the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dr Esther Chadwick, Lecturer in Art History, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Sarah Lea, Curator, Royal Academy of Arts and Rose Thompson, Assistant Curator, Royal Academy of Arts, with regular workshops with the RA Library, Archive and Collections team. Alayo Akinkugbe, Founder of A Black History of Art was Curatorial Researcher for the exhibition, supported by a grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Entangled Pasts, 1768–now: Art, Colonialism and Change brought together over 100 major contemporary and historical works as part of a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism – and how it may help set a course for the future.
Artworks by leading contemporary British artists of the African, Caribbean and South Asian diasporas, including Sonia Boyce, Frank Bowling and Mohini Chandra were on display alongside works by artists from the past 250 years including Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W.Turner and John Singleton Copley – creating connections across time which explore questions of power, representation and history.