Banner image: A tiled image repeating across the screen. Adam Reynolds' head is side on as he uses tools to carve at a stone-like object on the floor.

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The Adam Reynolds Award (ARA) was previously known as the Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary. 

The Adam Reynolds Award is Shape Arts' flagship award, set up in 2008 in memory of the life and work of sculptor Adam Reynolds. It is designed to support a mid-career disabled artist or artists, looking to develop their practice and build their profile by offering funds and a key development opportunity in connection with a high-profile cultural location or gallery. 

Adam was founder of the Adam Gallery 1984-97, and was based in South London. Adam was generous in his support for other artists, offering the opportunity to develop projects or work without the ‘conventional constraints’. The ARA is offered in the same spirit as that which guided the Adam Gallery and allows artists the time, space and support to develop their practice and discover their own potential at a time when they may be uncertain as to how to improve their practice and also sustain themselves.   The Award aims to provide an opportunity for artists to develop their ideas and practice without pressure to deliver a particular outcome such as finished or exhibition-ready work. It operates additionally to provide space, time and financial support within a framework of constructive and creative critical dialogue. A commemorative publication celebrating 10 years of the Award can be found on ISSUU.

Adam was inspirational as an artist and a man - seeing his disability as a strength. This bursary is the most practical and powerful way to continue doing what Adam did to make the possible palpable.

- Sir Antony Gormley

You can read more about Adam, his work and obituary in The Guardian, written by Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England, here.  A website dedicated to Adam's memory by his family can be visited here.

How do we select our Adam Reynolds Award awardees?

This varies with the year, and often we work with leading partners in the arts and creative industries. Previous partners include Creative Folkstone, Turner Contemporary, Baltic, Hotknife, Spike Island, Bluecoat and Pallant House Gallery. We work with our networks and wider community to select an artist each year to receive the bursary. Alongside the main award, we produce a Shortlist exhibition where a select group of artists considered for the award have an exhibition and each receive a smaller grant.

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