The 2024 Mapleton-Bree Prize for work in the Creative Arts

The Mapleton-Bree Prize is awarded annually for an original piece of work in any of the creative arts. Once again there was a record number of applicants and the committee judging the Mapleton-Bree Prize were delighted by this year's entries.

The committee commented:

‘[All the entries were] of an extremely high standard, ranging across a very wide range of media and inviting very different kinds of engagement from us. We would like to thank everyone who submitted their work.

It was of course a very difficult decision to identify winners. After considerable discussion, we decided to divide the prize itself between three submissions.

Iris Corran showed us her knitted jumpers, accompanied by a text which connected each to some form of familial relation. The jumpers were beautiful and their contextualisation gave them added significance and resonance.

Yesim Desticioglu submitted a video made with a group of women – family and neighbours – talking about their work and life in Turkey. This was a tender piece, and the judges were impressed with its subtle account of gender, generation, class and migration.

Emma Scanlon submitted a striking mixed-media painting, a combination of two portraits and printed text. This was a powerful image which strongly impacted all the committee members in its evocation of distress, survival and care.

We would also like to offer a ‘highly commended’ verdict to several other submissions:

• Freya Ashworth for a lovely electro-pop song;
• Oscar Fitzgerald for a flame-powered computer game, console and all;
• Mika Konishi Gaffney for geocached sound poems;
• Jan Huebel for an intriguing photograph;
• Davit Rickards for a charming Lego model of an Armenian church;
• Erick Superlano for a sophisticated short story.

Many congratulations to all. And, once again, thank you to everyone who submitted their work. It made the judges' task such a pleasure.’