The Trustees of the Golden Fleece Award are delighted to announce the recipients of this year's Award. Visual artist Sarah Browne and sculptor/designer Sasha Sykes have been awarded the top prizes in each category - Visual Art, and Craft + Applied Art - with each receiving a Golden Fleece Award worth €10,000.
The shortlist of visual artists, craftspeople and makers for the twenty-fourth annual Award also included Rhona Byrne (sculpture / installation); Jennifer Hickey (porcelain sculpture); Rosemary Kavanagh (basketmaking); Jan McCullough (photography / installation); Sorcha McNamara (painting / installation); and Michael Murphy (woodturning / sculpture). Each shortlisted artist received €2,500.
Sarah Browne’s work is increasingly invested in developing processes of social engagement that don’t rely solely on speaking in order to address non-verbal, bodily experiences of knowledge, labour and justice. While her practice is research-oriented, much of it is developed through processes of sculptural thinking and enquiry, particularly through working with textiles and analogue film processes. www.sarahbrowne.info
Sasha Sykes works with plants and polymers to make sculptural objects and design pieces that explore notions of history and usefulness. An exploration of the cycle of life and decay, and the dichotomy of fragility and preservation, are central to her practice. The work is handmade using acrylic and resins to explore, manipulate, and challenge the material language of the natural world. www.sashasykes.com
The 2025 Golden Fleece Award Ceremony took place at Dublin Castle on Wednesday 16 April. This year the Award attracted just under 290 eligible applications received across Category 1: Visual Art and Category 2: Craft + Applied Art, with a very welcome increase in the number of applications made by craft practitioners. The 2025 prize fund worth a total of €35,000 makes the Golden Fleece Award the most generous art prize open to both visual artists and craft practitioners/makers in Ireland.
The Golden Fleece Award was established through a bequest by Dublin-born artist, educator and researcher Lillias Mitchell (1915-2000). She recognised the financial challenges faced by creative practitioners and the impact these could have on their work; in her Letter of Wishes to her Trustees she stated her desire that the Award should "give artists a 'boost' in times of particular need." Accordingly, the mission of the Golden Fleece Award is to provide resources for practising visual, craft and applied artists to innovate and develop their artistic vision at pivotal points in their careers. The annual Award is open to artists originally from or currently living on the island of Ireland.
Lillias Mitchell's Trustees are supported in carrying out her wishes by the Golden Fleece Award Advisory Panel, which this year comprised Clíodhna Shaffrey (Panel Chair and Director, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios); Sara Flynn (ceramicist); Joe Hogan (basketmaker); Hugh Mulholland (Creative Director, Visual Arts, the MAC); Stephen O'Connell (gallerist, O'Connell Gallery); and Niamh O'Malley (visual artist).
