Visual Arts Scotland Inches Carr Craft Creative Development Award 2025

We are delighted to invite applications from Scottish makers for the Visual Arts Scotland Inches Carr Craft Creative Development Award 2025.

The purpose of the award is to enable artists to develop their practice to a higher level, consider innovation and introduce new materials or techniques to their existing practice. 

The award includes:

• A £5000 bursary for a maker.
• A £2000 bursary for mentoring support whose discipline and/or professional experience would add value to the winner's practice. 
• A group exhibition with the shortlisted exhibition applicants in July 2025 in Edinburgh.
• The opportunity to be included in the 2027 Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) Biennial at National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh.

Up to 15 shortlisted makers will be invited to exhibit a body of current work in a dedicated exhibition at the Fine Arts Society, Dundas Street, Edinburgh in July 2025. Following this, a shortlist of up to five makers for the award will be selected by a panel of industry professionals, each of these will receive a £250 bursary. 

The winner will be selected from the final shortlisted makers and announced during the exhibition. The winner will be invited to develop a new body of work to be exhibited at a subsequent major VAS annual exhibition. VAS will support the winner in the development of their project and promote it through their online channels and events programme.

Eligibility:

• This is a development award and is aimed at makers who are looking to develop a new body of work or expand their existing practice.
• Applicants must have been living and working in Scotland for four or more years. 
• Applicants must have graduated at least four years prior to applying. Please note this award is open to all applicants that feel they meet the core criteria, which includes those that may have had a career break or return to practice. 
• The award is open to makers, applied artists, designer makers and craftspeople working in any discipline. Fine art disciplines including printmaking are not eligible for this award. 
• You must be a VAS Member at time of application and the shortlisting exhibition.
• If selected as the award winner, you must remain a VAS Member for the duration of the opportunity.
• If you are not a VAS Member you may join prior to the submission deadline via our website or contacting members@visualartsscotland.org. 

The Purpose of the Award

The award should be used for a project that will help the maker to expand on their current practice. This can include but is not limited to:

• Attendance at workshops or courses to expand your existing skill set.
• The purchase of equipment to explore new techniques.
• An intensive developmental period.
• Material experimentation.
• Employing a mentor to assist you in your creative (and/or business) development.
• Travel for research and development purposes.

How To Apply

Please send your application in one single PDF document to  admin@visualartsscotland.org. The application must include the following items in PDF format. Please note we do not accept any other format for submissions.

• Up to seven images of supporting work. 
• Your artist statement (maximum 500 words).
• Website/social media links (if you have them).
• A statement of intent/proposal (maximum 500 words).
• Answer to the following question (maximum 250 words). What impact would the Inches Carr Award have on you and your practices?
• CV (maximum 2 pages).
• Please provide details (names and reasons) on your ideas for mentor and/or training opportunities. These do not need to be confirmed at this stage. Alternatively, please indicate the type of mentoring or training you would like to undertake. Visual Arts Scotland will support in arranging this. 
• You may also include any prototype or preliminary research images that correspond to your proposal.
• Please complete our Equal Opportunities form at time of submission. This is anonymous and can be completed HERE.
• The deadline for applications is 25th April 2025 at 5pm.

Additional Information

• Submitted images might be reproduced in publications to accompany the exhibition so please make sure you have permission to use the image and credit photographers as necessary.
• An initial shortlist of up to 15 makers will be selected and invited to exhibit at the VAS Inches Carr Exhibition, Dundas Street Gallery in July 2025. These shortlisted makers will be informed in the week commencing 5th May 2025.
• Submissions will be judged equally based on the written proposal, the quality of work and impact potential of the award. 
• During the exhibition at Dundas Street, a final short list of up to five artists will be selected by a panel of industry professionals. These shortlisted artists will be invited to an interview with the panel to discuss this opportunity further. Final shortlisted applicants for the award will receive a £250 Artist Award.
• Applications must clearly demonstrate that the applicant has considered a new direction in their work and has an understanding of how the award will further their goals.
• Applications must reflect a clarity of the proposal and ability to convey potential outcomes.
• Applicants are encouraged to focus on a single area for development, and not to include too many varying outcomes.

• The shortlisted exhibition artists must make the selected work available for exhibition from 1st July 2025 and delivered to the Fine Arts Society, Dundas Street, Edinburgh. Please note that any exhibited work that is for sale will be subject to VAS’s standard commission of 40%. The work does not have to be for sale.
• The awardee will be required to document the development of the project as it unfolds for monitoring purposes, and for future use by VAS including the press, social media and within publications. This should take the form of images of the work in progress, developmental sketches, etc.

Should you have any questions or require support in preparing your application please contact Mark at members@visualartsscotland.org in advance of the submission deadline 25th April 2025 at 5pm.

Image credit Joanna Kessel