With two awards commensurate with other Prizes for international excellence in the Ceramic Arts, the Whitegold Prize is designed to bring St Austell’s wealth of history and global connections through china clay to the attention of outstanding ceramic artists from across the world. The prize has a particular agenda, to bring new perspectives to St Austell as a place of ceramic significance and to re-imagine it as a place of inspiration, innovation and creativity. 

In 2019, the first Whitegold Prize was conceived to celebrate clay and its relationship with people, culture and place and invited individual artists, collectives and CICs to submit works that used clay to inspire new perspectives and insights in to place – the specific character of a location that makes it unique. 

A shortlist of 10 wittled down from over 100 submissions from across the world by the Whitegold Prize Jury, visited St Austell for an introduction to the town

and its surrounding clay pits and tips and to present their work to the local community at Whitegold Festival 2019. Shortlisted artists  were then invited to submit proposals for new art works for St Austell that were environmentally and culturally aware and socially engaged.

Professor Neil Brownsword was selected for the Quartz Award and Tana West  for the Feldspar Award. Read more about Neil’s work here and Tana’s work here.

For 2020/21 the Prize has the same foundation, but with the added theme of Conviviality, inviting submissions from artists of international standing with experience of creating and delivering socially engaged projects that bring food and clay together and culminating in a festive community event. These project are ongoing and you can find out more here.