Margaret Tait Award 2020/2021 Nominations Open

LUX Scotland is pleased to announce that the call for nominations for the 2020/​21 Margaret Tait Award is now open. The Margaret Tait Award is Scotland’s most prestigious moving image prize for artists. Inspired by the pioneering Orcadian filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait (1918 – 99), the award recognises experimental and innovative artists working with the moving image, offering a unique avenue of commissioning and production support and providing a high profile platform to exhibit newly commissioned work.

Deadline for nominations is Monday 18 November 2019, 9am

Established in 2010, the Margaret Tait Award is a LUX Scotland commission delivered in partnership with Glasgow Film, with support from Screen Scotland. The only award of its kind in Scotland, it allows LUX Scotland, Glasgow Film and Screen Scotland to make a lasting and meaningful impact on the careers of new filmmaking talent, support new commissions and forge new partnerships across the sector.

Each year, the Award is presented to a Scottish or Scotland-based artist who has established a significant body of work over the past 5 – 12 years; is recognised by peers for their contribution to the artists’ moving image sector; and can demonstrate the significant impact that the award will have on the development of their practice. The recipient of the award will receive a £15,000 prize to produce ambitious new work, which is exhibited at the Glasgow Film Festival the following year and will subsequently tour with LUX Scotland.

Eligible artists are nominated through an open call process, which allows anyone (the general public, as well as arts professionals and artists) both within and outwith Scotland to put forward an artist. Nominations are assessed by a jury of artists and professionals from across the fields of the visual arts and cinema. Shortlisted artists are then asked to present proposals for the commission.

Jamie Crewe, recipient of the 2019/​20 award, will present their new film at Glasgow Film Festival 2020 (26 February – 8 March 2020). The 2020/​21 award will be announced at this screening, and a reception for both Crewe and the new recipient will be held afterwards.

Previous recipients have included Jamie Crewe, Alberta Whittle, Sarah Forrest, Kate Davis, Duncan Marquiss, Charlotte Prodger, Rachel Maclean, Anne-Marie Copestake and Torsten Lauschmann.

Who can be nominated?

Artists who are Scottish and/​or based in Scotland.Artists who have developed a significant body of work over the past 5 – 12 years and are at the cusp of a major impact on the artists’ moving image sector.Artists who are contributing to the critical context of artists’ moving image production in Scotland at the time of nomination.There is no age restriction.We regret that we cannot accept nominations of artists who are students.

How to nominate:

Please send 200 words on the artist’s career to date, their impact on the sector and your reasons for nominating. Please include a link to the artist’s website or an online example of their work, as well as the artist’s email address and phone number.

Nominations should be sent by email only to email hidden; JavaScript is required

Deadline for nominations is 9am on Monday 18 November 2019

The shortlist will be announced in December 2019

LUX Scotland are delighted to announce that this year’s jury is comprised of Sarah Forrest (2017/​18 Award recipient); Myriam Mouflih (Africa in Motion and Transmission Gallery); Helen Nisbet (curator and Director for Art Night); Morgan Quaintance (artist); Sean Greenhorn (Creative Scotland) and Kitty Anderson (LUX Scotland, chair).

Sarah Forrest is an artist based in Glasgow who works across film, installation, text and sound. She received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2010. Solo exhibitions include: The Unreliable Narrator, Hospitalfield, Arbroath (2019); Sarah Forrest: April, LUX, London (2018); Again, it objects, Kunstraum Dusseldorf, Germany (2016); I Left it on Page 32, Supplement, London (2014); Two Solo Shows: Sarah Forrest and Mounira Al Sohl, CCA, Glasgow (2013). She was recipient of the 2017/​18 Margaret Tait Award and is a current AHRC Doctoral Researcher at Glasgow School of Art.

Myriam Mouflih is a programmer and writer from Glasgow, UK. She currently works as Programme Co-ordinator for Africa in Motion Film Festival and has worked for the organisation since 2017. Myriam also is on the committee of Transmission Gallery and works for Scottish Contemporary Art Network as Programme and Marketing Officer. Her current research focus is Artists Moving Image from the African continent and the diaspora.

Helen Nisbet is a curator from Shetland, now based in London. She is Artistic Director for Art Night and curates projects across the UK. Helen sits on the Acquisitions Committee for the Arts Council Collection and the Advisory Board for Art Quest. Her publication It Disappears in Blue and Red and Gold was published by Bookworks and The Common Guild in 2018.

Morgan Quaintance is a London-based artist and writer. His moving-image work has been shown recently at David Dale Gallery, Glasgow; LUX, London; KARST, Plymouth; LIMA Amsterdam, Kunstmuseum Bonn; Jerwood Space London; the 14^th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival; London Film Festival 2018; November Film Festival; the Palace International Film Festival; and Videonale.17.