You may know Cass Art as the place where you get your watercolours and sketchbooks, but they do a whole lot more than sell art supplies. When it comes to championing up-and-coming or underappreciated artists, the Cass name carries huge weight.

Whether it be introducing figures like Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet to all-new audiences or supporting contemporary artists with spaces and workshops around the UK, it’s clear that the Cass family simply wants as much art in as many places as possible. In the words of company founder Mark Cass, their mission is to “fill this town with artists”.

So, with the submission window closing on the 20th of May for The Cass Art Prize 2024, we reckon you should submit your work, and sooner rather than later. In fact, we here at Arts SU want you to enter so much that we’ll reimburse your entry fees!

We’ll cover the details of how reimbursement works in a bit, but let’s take a look at what this prize even is first. After all, we want you as excited about this as we are.

The Cass Art Prize 2024: What you need to know

Welcoming artists of all varieties, from students and teachers to amateurs and pros, The Cass Art Prize wants to cast a serious spotlight on deserving artists from all over the UK and Ireland.

With categories for students, teachers, oil paintings, watercolour, mixed media, 3D artwork, sketching and more, every effort has been made to encompass all manner of entrants. Each category promises a different prize, the most exciting of which is for the Main Prize: £10,000 cash and a free stand at Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair in spring 2025. Oh, and the winner will also display their work alongside longlisted artists at a group exhibition in Peckham’s Copeland Gallery in November 2024.

That may be the meatiest prize up for grabs, but the others aren’t exactly shabby, especially The Students Award and The Art Educators Award. Not only will the winners for both win £500 worth of art supplies, but entrants will also be automatically entered into The Main Prize too. So, there’s every chance that you could win The Main Prize, even if you only enter as a student.

Meet the judging panel

Seven judges make up The Cass Art Prize 2024 judging panel. They’re a pretty impressive bunch.

Curtis Holder is a portrait artist and artist in residence at Leeds Art Gallery, whose distinct graphite and pencil style saw them win Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year 2020. Of course, that’s without mentioning all the other accolades that he’s earned just in the last few years.

Justin Mortimer is an acclaimed painter and previous winner of the National Portrait Gallery’s BP Portrait Award . His unsettling, surrealist oil painting saw him win myriad awards in his own right across a two-decade-long career.

Kathleen Soriano is a curator and judge on Sky Arts’ popular Artist of the Year series, as well as about a dozen other things, including being a self-proclaimed ‘high/low culture addict’.

Pippy Houldsworth is a gallery owner who champions work all over the world, including a recent mural by Dindga McCannon, created in collaboration with the patients of New York’s Rikers Island.

Robert Diament is a partner at the Carl Freedman Gallery and co-host of podcast TalkArt. He’s interviewed more people about art than most of us have ever even spoken to!

Ryan Stanier is the founder of Saatchi Art’s ‘The Other Art Fair’, which has become a global name, currently running events in cities spanning England, Australia and US.

Sinta Tantra is a British artist of Balinese descent, whose recent work takes inspiration from Paul Scheerbart’s 1912 novel The Lightclub of Batavia and her family home in Bali, depicting a spa that bathes its visitors in golden light.

Those are some big names to present your work to, and you can have the chance to do it for free with Arts SU! Here’s how:

Free entry to The Cass Art Prize 2024: Reimbursement guide

1. Pay for entry on the competition entry website.
2. Get in touch with the Arts Programme team at artsprogramme@su.arts.ac.uk where we will ask you for your bank/payment details for us to issue a reimbursement to you.
3. You’ll need to send a copy of your competition fee receipt, so make sure to keep a copy of this when entering the competition. You can find it in the ‘Payment and Invoices’ section of Zealous, the competition entry website.
4. If you have the time, we’d also be incredibly appreciative if you provided feedback on your entry and experience with this opportunity. We’ll be in touch after the deadline if you’re willing to offer feedback.
5. For any assistance at any time, be sure to contact the Arts Programme team!

And that’s it! Simply follow those steps and those three entries (worth £20) will be completely free for you. Be aware, though, that due to a limited fund, we can only support a select number of UAL students with entry fees. That’s just all the more reason to get yours in as soon as you can - and don't forget that entries close at midday (12pm), 20th May 2024.

Don’t sleep on this opportunity. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain!