The annual European Award programme is open to non-profit European cultural organisations that support innovative approaches to audience engagement and participation in arts, culture and heritage. The Awards encourage initiatives that break down social, economic and geographic barriers, creating new connections between arts and audiences, and inspiring projects that can be shared, replicated and scaled across Europe. The Award celebrates best practices through an annual publication featuring laureates and shortlisted projects.
Visit the European Award website
Applications for the European Award open every spring and close in July. A shortlist of circa 15 projects is released in September and winners are announced at an annual award ceremony, usually held at the Institut de France in Paris, home to our partner, the Académie des beaux arts.
5 Annual Awards: €30k, €40k, and €50k Awards plus a €30k special jury award and a €30k audience choice award by public vote. Over 36 European countries apply for the awards every year. Applications are welcome from all EU countries plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine and the Western Balkan states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia)‍.
Visit the European Award website
In 2026, for the first time, the European Award Ceremony will be held in London, at the V&A South Kensington, hosted by Art Explora UK. On the same day, we will host the annual Arts & Audiences Forum, bringing together arts engagement professionals from across Europe, including representatives from all shortlisted projects, to discuss key themes and issues in the field of arts engagement today.
Find out more on our What’s on page
“The Art Explora European Award will make it possible to realise Turning the Tide, a major cultural engagement project centring and making visible disabled people. The award will allow us to project a video installation of disabled young performers over the River Thames in an iconic London riverside location, seen by hundreds of people.”
Catherine Yass
Artist and project lead for “Turning the Tide”, European Award Winner 2025

Past European Award UK winners

Past European Award UK winners include: 

  • 2025 — Thames Festival Trust — “Turning the Tide” — a film installation led by Turner Prize nominee Catherine Yass, centering, disabled and neurodivergent artists.
  • 2023 — Hospital Rooms — “Digital Art School”, bringing art into mental health wards
  • 2021 — Victoria and Albert Museum — “V&A Innovate”, a national design challenge for schools
  • 2020 — National Gallery — “Jan van Huysum Visits…”, touring masterpieces to non-museum venues
“The project brought the outside world in. Becoming a participant in these activities in prison brings such liveliness to your life that you feel like you’re on the outside with a group of people, who don’t judge you, who understand you, people you hope will continue to be a part of your life.”
Vesna Božanić
Former inmate of Požega prison, Bosnia, and participant in “Go on with the Story”, European Award Winner 2024