Scholarships & Awards

1. Email your entry to [email protected]
2. Send in your entry before 17.00 (GMT) Friday 1st of March 2025.
3. First Prize is a place on the 2 week Summer Course which can be put towards any longer programme.
   There are also runner up prizes

Applicants must be at least 16 and no older than 18 years of age on the published closing date. Occasionally exceptions to this do apply, contact Art History Abroad for further details.

Entries for the Scholarship must be received by Art History Abroad no later than 17.00 (GMT) Friday March 1st 2025. Late entries will not be accepted.

The Competition 

All you have to do is write two 400 word reasoned descriptions – one on a work of art (to include architecture, painting, drawing, decorative arts and design) you love, and one that you loathe. We aren’t looking for anything showy, just something that is filled with personality and authenticity. We urge you to have fun with it.

The essays must be supported by no more than two photographs (one per essay) or drawings no larger than a sheet of A4 paper. The adjudicators will look for good and daring arguments to support the applicant’s assertions. The team of adjudicators, who are appointed by Art History Abroad, will assemble a short list of entrants to be decisively assessed by a distinguished figure in the world of art. The decision of the adjudicators and the final judge cannot be reviewed.

SUBMIT your essays as attachments to an email to   [email protected]   to be received no later than 17.00 (GMT) Friday 1st March 2025.

The value of the Scholarship is Art History Abroad’s fee for any 2-week Summer Course (£4,995 in 2025). This covers accommodation in Italy, all museum entry fees, travel and tuition upon the course in Italy.  No cash alternative is available. It may also be used against a longer course, see Transferability below.

PLEASE NOTE

The fee and therefore the scholarship does NOT cover lunch, supper or spending money. Students are asked to meet these daily expenses of about £40 daily. Travel insurance and flights are NOT included.

If a successful scholar wishes to transfer the value of the 2-week Summer Course to one of the Art History Abroad courses specified below, he/she will need to pay the balance of the fees. Otherwise the value of the Scholarship may NOT be transferred or cashed in. If the winner is unable to take up the place offered the benefit of the Scholarship will be offered to the runner up.

The winner in 2025 will be allowed to put the Scholarship award towards the following courses: Early Summer 6-week Course, any 2 or 4-week Summer Courses,  Autumn 6-week Courses 2025 and Spring 6-week Course 2025.

Sir (George) Trenchard Cox. Lucinda Douglas-Menzies/National Portrait Gallery, London

The Scholarship was established by Art History Abroad in 1998 in memory of past President of NADFAS (the former name of The Arts Society), Sir Trenchard Cox (1905 – 1995).

Sir Trenchard Cox was an enchanting man. He died in 1995 leaving deep in the memory of those who knew him a quality of old world manners and warm wit. He was kind to everyone and encouraged all he met in their delight of beautiful things. It is perhaps this facet of his character that made him such a good Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) where, it is said, he made time each week to walk around the great halls of the museum talking to the wardens whose solitary task it is to guard the collection.  He was an “everyman”.

Furthermore, his devotion to the principal that museums serve all people made him a leader in museum education. To this end some galleries were laid out with different types of objects put into a historical setting and thus into context. This aspect of his work as an educator has perhaps been of the greatest influence on me, as Director of AHA .  Sir Trenchard Cox was also a constant support to Patricia Fay in the early days when she founded NADFAS (now known as The Arts Society) and he rejoiced in being its first President.

My initial acquaintance with Sir Trenchard was forged through my mother, who was a cousin by marriage.  Indeed Maisy, Trenchard’s wife, who was herself a great expert on mosaics, is the namesake of our daughter Cosima Maisy Ross. Aged nineteen I was encouraged by my mother to meet Trenchard, as I cast about looking for an enthusiasm in life that would turn into a career. He was good fun to meet, partly because he seemed to know everything about art but also because he would forget what drink I had asked for as he made his way to the drinks trolley.  Rather than ask again, he would put a little of everything that was already open into one large glass. It was rocket fuel and any shyness I might have had gave way to rich conversation.

So, for many reasons, this is an important prize for those of us concerned and we hope it will be for those who take part.  Intertwined are threads which start with a remarkable man who did so much to found The Arts Society and influence me at Art History Abroad.  The sense of self belief that winning this substantial prize has engendered in past winners would have touched Trenchard and his sense of culture being for all.

Nicholas Ross