Beck's Futures

Beck's Futures is a British art prize sponsored by Beck's beer given to contemporary artists.

Prior to the establishment of the prize in 2000, Beck's had sponsored several exhibitions of contemporary art in Britain by providing free beer. Together with Artangel , they had also commissioned a number of works by artists, including Rachel Whiteread's House and Water Tower and pieces by Douglas Gordon and Tony Oursler .

Although it does not receive as much publicity as the Turner Prize, the prize fund is larger - in 2003, it was £65,000 to the Turner Prize's £20,000. Of this, £20,000 went to the winner, who also took a share of the £40,000 divided between all the shortlisted artists. The remaining £5,000 was allocated to the Student Prize for Film and Video, with £2,000 of that going to the winner.

Winners

• 2000 - Roderick Buchanan
• 2001 - Tim Stoner
• 2002 - Toby Paterson
• 2003 - Rosalind Nashashibi
• 2004 - Saskia Olde Wolbers

The 2003 prize, presented by Wim Wenders, was awarded on April 29 at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. As well as Nashashibi, the shortlisted artists were Bernd Behr, Nick Crowe, Alan Currall, Inventory, David Sherry, Lucy Skaer, Francis Upritchard and Carey Young. The panel of judges was chaired by the artist Michael Landy, and also included the curators Russell Ferguson , Maria Lind and Hans Ulrich Obrist .

The 2004 prize was awarded on April 27 to Saskia Olde Wolbers . The other shortlisted artists were Haluk Akakçe , Tonico Lemos Auad , Simon Bedwell , Ergin Çavusoglu , Andrew Cross , , Susan Philipsz , Imogen Stidworthy , Hayley Tompkins and Nicoline Van Harskamp .

The 2005 shortlist comprises Lali Chetwynd , Luke Fowler , Ryan Gander , Daria Martin , Christina Mackie and Donald Urquhart . The winner will be announced on April 26.

External link

• Home page
• A review of the 2003 prize show by Adrian Searle in The Guardian