This annual award was established in 2003 to honour the work and commitment to Artweeks, over many years, of the [late Lady Mary Moser](news/29062). The award is intended to help develop the career of a professional artist who has taken up art as a second career, with a small cash prize.
Both Artweeks members and the general public are free to nominate any Artweeks artist who has turned to the visual arts later in life and are invited to submit their nominations to artweeks@artweeks.org between 5th May and 31st October in the format
I nominate Artweeks Member because…. (100 words).
If known, it would also be useful to have the following information: the artist’s year of birth and the length of time they have been an Artweeks artist.
Please also include your relationship with the nominated artist.
The Artweeks Board will consider the nominations in November and choose a winner based on the quality of art, and the life-change to pursue it.
The 2026 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Emma Williams
The 2025 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Emma Coleman-Jones
The 2024 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Sally-Anne Stewart
The 2023 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Sue Smith
The 2022 Mary Moser prize was awarded to David Williams.
The 2021 Mary Moser prze was awarded to Rachel Cronin.
The 2020 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Rose Bradford.
The 2019 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Claire Christie Sadler
The 2018 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Elaine Kazimierczuk
The 2017 Mary Moser prize was awarded to Andrew Harrison
Earlier winners include Wendy Newhofer who worked in the coal hole in the cellar of her Jericho house for the first five years as a glass artist, the only place where she could fit her kiln at that time; Richard Shock, an Oxford woodturner who took up the hobby at the age of 50 and was accepted into the Oxfordshire Craft Guild in 2003; Summertown sculptor Martin Smith, photographer Simon Murison-Bowie from East Oxford, Mark Fitzgerald, a slipware potter with a studio and small gallery in Bampton, and Jane Duff from Little Wittenham who paints large canvases in response to the environment around her and creates photocomposites of textures.
An Obituary: Mary Moser 16th Dec 1921 – 15th Feb 2022
Mary Moser died in 2022, aged 100.
As soon as Mary moved to Oxford in 1984 she became involved in Artweeks. She was chair for many years until 2001.
During her time as chair she oversaw Artweeks growing into one of the first and most successful open studio festivals anywhere. She was also instrumental in developing both Kids@Art and Art for Age, 2 projects which had the aim of widening access to art – something she felt passionate about.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Mary spent 3 weeks every summer walking the streets of Oxford and driving round the lanes and villages of Oxfordshire to visit as many Artweeks sites as possible. As a keen artist herself she also exhibited her own work in various settings, including at Wadham College and Sutton Courtney Abbey.
As someone who had always combined art with being a wife and mother and having a career in social work, Mary was always particularly happy to meet artists for whom art was not their first or only career. This led to the establishment of the Mary Moser award in 2003 – an award given to an artist exhibiting in Artweeks who has taken up art as a second career. Well into her 90s Mary made a point of meeting the Mary Moser award winner each year. This was something that gave her great pleasure. Since her death, her daughters have kindly taken on this role.
Mary always considered her role in Artweeks and the associated projects to be one of her proudest achievements.