This year’s £2,500 Liverpool Sculpture Prize, organised by Liverpool BID Company, is open for entries from artists across the UK with the winning work to be displayed for a year at Liverpool Parish Church. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool BID Company is inviting entries for the Liverpool Sculpture Prize which offers £2,500 to the winner.

Organised with Liverpool Parish Church (Our Lady & St Nicholas) close to the waterfront, the competition is open to any sculptor working and living in the UK. They have until Monday, April 8, to submit their ideas.

A judging panel, featuring people from within the arts, business and creative communities, will decide the winning entry, which will be unveiled to the public in June 2024.

This work will be displayed at Liverpool Parish Church, either on the plinth on Chapel Street, or in the church gardens overlooking Liverpool’s waterfront.

The plinth was the site of Brian Burgess’s Christ on a Donkey and The Liverpool Plinth from 2018 to 2023. In the gardens at Liverpool Parish Church, various works have also been installed including Ranti Bam as part of Liverpool Biennial.

Those works also include the Liverpool Blitz Memorial, commemorating the Blitz of 1940-41 when 1,700 people were killed by falling bombs. Sculptor Tom Murphy’s work shows a young boy with a toy plane and a mother clutching her baby.

Bill Addy, chief executive of Liverpool BID Company, said: “We have a long running commitment to public art and it is a vital ingredient in everyday life in Liverpool.

“We wanted to develop a sustainable prize that would be open to artists across the country and we are excited to see the submissions we receive.

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“We are looking for artwork that is thought provoking, animating and that will catch the eye of those who walk past. This is a high profile location with tourists, office workers, residents and visitors on its doorstep”.

Click here for more details or to submit your entry

Rector of Liverpool, Revd Canon Dr Crispin Pailing, of Liverpool Parish Church, added: “Our ambition with the Liverpool Sculpture Prize is that it attracts artists both young and old to submit their work.

“We know that the opportunities for exhibition for artists, particularly sculptors, are increasingly few and far between, especially in the public realm. This prize is designed to provide real support and ambition to promote artists who need it.”