The Live Art Development Agency’s “Arthole Artist’s Award” supports a ground-breaking and inspirational UK-based artist working in Live Art to undertake a self-determined year-long research and artistic development programme that will have a significant and lasting impact on their practice, and on wider contemporary culture in the UK.

This Award is intended to plug a hole in art funding for open-ended research and professional development.

The Arthole Artist’s Award recipient will receive £10,000.

The programme of activity should take place from April 2019 to March 2020.

The Arthole Artist’s Award will afford the recipient the space, time and resources to research a range of critical, cultural, and practical concepts and ideas in relation to their practice; to engage in dialogues with leading thinkers, researchers and artists; to explore new approaches to knowledge sharing and intergenerational collaborations; and to consider the possibilities of both their legacy and their future potential.

LADA's Arthole Artist’s Award was conceived by the artist Joshua Sofaer in 2016 as an initiative to support individual Patronage of Live Art, and was developed by the Live Art Development Agency in collaboration with Gary Carter.

The first Arthole Artist’s Award recipient was Marcia Farquhar who undertook a programme looking at the past and future of her performance practices, its place in history and its archiving as well as attending to some unfinished business.

The call for proposals for the second Arthole Artist’s Award has been made possible thanks to the generous Patronage of Alex Mahon, Chief Executive of Channel Four.

"I believe - particularly in times of great change, challenge, and revolution - that one of the important functions of art is to open our hearts, eyes and minds. To help us think about who we are, and who we can be. I am a female leader working in the creative industries and I believe passionately in diversity, access and representation both as human rights issues, and as precursors for creative innovation. As a physicist by training, I am sure that innovation does not occur without research. Onward professional development, and the research which is the foundation of that development is of vital importance not only to individual practitioners, but to society as a whole. Live Art is significant, and so is the kind of funding represented by Arthole, and so it is my great pleasure to support the Arthole Artist’s Award for 2019." - Alex Mahon