The Sovereign Art Foundation

The Sovereign Middle East and African Art Prize

The Sovereign Middle East and African Art Prize is now in its second year after following the success of its Asian counterpart which now in its 9th year and is the biggest, best known and most prestigious arts prize in the region.

Entry for the Middle East and African prize is by expert nomination only. A world class panel of judges will select the best 30 entries as finalists and those are publicly exhibited and then auctioned with proceeds being evenly split between the finalists and charity.

The aims of the Middle East and African art prize are to (i) raise public awareness of Middle East and African art; (ii) provide much needed exposure, recognition and opportunity to Middle East and African artists; and (iii) raise significant funding for charities in Middle East and Africa.

The Sovereign Art Foundation has been very successful in discovering mid-career artists who have quickly gone on to achieve record prices at auction so the opportunity to purchase these works presents a compelling case for investment whilst assisting a worthy charitable cause.

How the prize works

The prize will follow the same format as its Asian and European counterparts. Entry is by nomination only. The Sovereign Art Foundation will assemble a large panel of art experts from all over Middle East and Africa who will be asked to nominate the best Middle East and African artists and encourage them to submit images of their work for evaluation. Next a panel of renowned judges will select the best 30 works and these will be exhibited in a prominent venue.

During the exhibition the judging panel will evaluate the 30 finalists and decide the winner who will receive a cash prize of US$30,000.

There will also be a public vote prize. The public will be invited to choose their favourite piece by either voting at the exhibition or voting online through the website gallery. The artist who receives the most public votes will receive a prize of US$1,000.

The gala dinner will take place after the exhibition at a venue to be decided. The winning artists will be presented with their prizes at the dinner. The winning piece will become the property of the Foundation and will be loaned to patrons, sponsors, museums etc and the remaining 29 finalists, including the public vote prize winner, will be auctioned with the proceeds being split evenly between the artist and The Foundation. All funds raised by during the evening will be applied without deduction to assist disadvantaged children using the arts as rehabilitation or therapy. This is possible as all overheads of The Sovereign Art Foundation are covered by the patronage of The Sovereign Group.