This year’s Turner Prize has been cancelled – with a grant for artists in its place

Every year since 1984, a panel of art heads have gathered to decide who is the winner of the prestigious Turner Prize. Not this year, though.

The competition, organised by Tate Britain, is accompanied by an exhibition featuring work from the four nominated artists and usually culminates with a £25,000 prize being given to an artist in December. Last year Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani were the first artists to win collectively (they demanded it be so!), and in previous years Rachel Whiteread, Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst have bagged the award.

With all the, you know, stuff going on, Tate has come up with a different plan for this year’s edition, even though the jury spent 12 months visiting galleries around the globe to pull together a shortlist.

Instead of a 2020 prize, organisers will award ten bursaries of £10,000 to deserving artists to support them over the coming months. Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, said: ‘We have decided to help support even more artists during this exceptionally difficult time. I think JMW Turner, who once planned to leave his fortune to support artists in their hour of need, would approve of our decision.’

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