Originally set up in 2003 in Hong Kong, The Sovereign Art Foundation was a “lightbulb” moment for Chairman and founder Howard Bilton, who saw the foundation as an opportunity to bring together the art collecting world to raise the profile of artists, while also raising substantial funds for charity.

As the chairman of The Sovereign Group, and a long collector of art, Howard explained “if you don’t pay much tax then it is important to be able to give back, and this is a really fun way to be able to do this.”

Howard first began with The Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong: “I wanted to put the best of Asian art in front of the Hong Kong public so that they can appreciate art for art’s sake, while at the same time – and most importantly for me personally – raise money, which can be used to assist disadvantaged children.

“My motivation has always been philanthropic, but we realise that if we want to raise a significant amount of money, we have to pro­duce a world class art prize that attracts the very best artists. So, for The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, we offer a substantial prize fund and a platform which gives artists international exposure to new audiences around the region.”

Prize in Portugal

The success of the prize in Asia has since been replicated around the world and now for the first time it is being run in Portugal.

The aim of the prize is to be able to exhibit a selection of the “most significant contemporary art from Portugal”, while also widening and building the knowledge of the work of artists from the country by giving them greater public visibility. The other main focus of the prize is to also sell the artworks to raise funds for both the artists and also for charitable causes that will help disadvantaged children in Portugal.

Over 200 entries were submitted in Portugal for the prize and this has now been narrowed down to a shortlist where the grand prize for the artist is €25,000 and the public vote prize is €2,000, with the Grand Prize winner to be announced on 12 April.

All of the 30 chosen finalists have their works displayed on the art foundation website and members of the public are able to vote for their favourite by clicking on their favourite image.

While one prize is picked out by the public, the main prize will be chosen by a panel of independent judges, including artist Joana Vasconcelos, the Chief executive and director of Design Museum London, Tim Marlow, artist Ai Weiwei and writer, curator and museum director David Elliot.

Sovereign Art Prize works

Exhibitions

Once the winner has been announced then there will be a series of finalists’ exhibitions taking place across the country. The first exhibition is to be held at the Palacio das Artes in Porto between 13 and 30 April, followed by an exhibition at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes in Lisbon between 24 May and 18 June and then at the Museu Berado in Estemox between 22 June and 15 August. A final exhibition in the Algarve is also planned but with dates and venue yet to be confirmed.

“This is an opportunity for people to be able to see 30 top artists and their best work and vote for their favourite,” said Howard. “We want to encourage people to engage with the art and have as many people as possible see it”.

Student prize

Alongside the main prize in Portugal there is also The Sovereign Art Foundation Student Prize, which was initially set up in 2017.

This is a competition for any student enrolled in secondary school in Portugal who has been nominated by their teacher with a judge’s prize of €500 for the student and €1,500 for their school, while there is also a public vote prize of €300 for the student and €800 for their school.

The public are invited to vote for their favourite artwork, the most popular of which will receive the Public Vote Prize. Some works are available for sale in a silent auction the proceeds of which are split 50:50 between the student and the Foundation, click on the artworks on the site to view, vote and bid. The vote and silent auction closes on 15 August.

“The 30 finalists from the schools prize will be exhibited alongside the main prize,” explained Howard who added that “the quality of the submissions was really amazing”.

“The sale of works sees 50 percent going to the artist and 50 percent going to charity, this is where we spend money locally to really help disadvantaged children in the community, giving children a chance, and we have seen tremendous results in the past, with some of the children we have helped are now coming back to us as teachers in the case of Cambodia.

“This is also a fantastic platform for artists, marking them stand out as special and usually seeing their career take a leap forward as a result, especially as a winner.”

“This is a cause very dear to my heart and I expect it to do very well in Portugal.”

For further information about The Sovereign Art Foundation, to vote for your favourite art works, or to find out further details about the exhibitions, please visit www.sovereignartfoundation.com