First Plinth

First Plinth

Closing Date

Applications are now closed.

First Plinth: Public Art Award is designed to offer sculptors an opportunity to extend their practice into competing for public art commissions. The winning sculptor is awarded £15,000 to produce a large-scale sculpture for the sculpture terrace at Dora House before moving to a second site at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The winner of the First Plinth: Public Art Award 2023, Madi Acharya-Baskerville MRSS, was announced during the Public Art Symposium, that took place at Dora House on on Saturday 29 April marking International Sculpture Day. Madi's commission will be unveiled on 1 June 2024.

The winner of the First Plinth: Public Art Award 2021 was Polly Morgan and her work Open! Channel! Flow! was on the sculpture terrace at Dora House until 22 May 2023. It will next be installed at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Submissions for the First Plinth: Public Art Award 2025 are expected to open in November 2024.

About the prize

This biennial award is open to any artist working in three dimensions, providing a unique and rare opportunity for the winner to build a track record in the competitive arena of public art.

The fabrication of the winning work is supported by the award, with the winner receiving mentoring from a team of experienced professionals – engineers, consultants and artists – to ensure the concept is delivered to the exacting standards required of work to be installed in public spaces.

This award is generously supported by the Mirisch & Lebenheim Charitable Foundation

Current Winner

Madi Acharya-Baskerville MRSS

Madi Acharya-Baskerville MRSS is an Asian born, London based diaspora artist. Her cultural heritage continues to have a profound influence on her practice. Her work explores migration and exile gender issues in the context of climate change. The core of her work exists in the found element, matter that already exists around us, an enduring reflection of the human condition. Her practice involves the synthesis of unlikely elements which she collect from the coastline, woodlands and vintage markets. Using found objects, and textiles which resonate with her, she create works where materials flow effortlessly into each other. Her practice involves a variety of processes and techniques including painting, beadwork and modelling. Through joyous transformative processes, these objects and materials are reborn as part of something new.

Madi Acharya-Baskerville graduated with an MA in Fine Art at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. She was selected for the 20/20 residency commission, supported by Arts Council England, Freelands Foundation and University of the Arts London, Decolonizing Institute (2022).Her work entered the Whitworth permanent collection, University of Manchester through the Art Fund New Collecting Award (2021) and is currently on display in ‘Exchanges: Recent Additions to the Collection’.She was awarded DYCP Grant from Arts Council England (2021-22) for developing Ceramic works in the context of museum collections at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

'I think this award will really help me to develop my practice and enable me to connect with wider audiences. I am also very much looking forward to working towards a solo exhibition at Dora House as part of this award. Thank you so much Royal Society of Sculptors for this wonderful opportunity!'

I am really thrilled to receive the First Plinth Award and have the opportunity to create my first sculpture in the Public Realm. My practice is concerned with climate change and cultural diversity and I am looking forward to working with found materials and objects in combination with new and traditional sculptural techniques.

Madi Acharya-Baskerville MRSS

About the prize

The making of 'The Double Act'

Madi Acharya-Baskerville MRSS

Past Winners