Music for Change Award Launched

To coincide with this year’s Earth Day, the Arts Foundation and  PRS Foundation have joined forces to create The Music for Change Award. This new award will celebrate UK based artists, songwriters, composers, producers, and experimental sound artists who have a track record of focusing on the underlying themes related to the climate crisis such as ecology, the environment and social cohesion.

The £10,000 award will incorporate music creators from right across the entire music spectrum. Criteria will include those who advance our thoughts about climate change and understanding of solutions as well as ecologically motivated practices and those with music practices related to community building and development, volunteering and voting. Three further finalists will receive £1,000 awards.

PRS Foundation Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Nitin Sawhney CBE said, ‘I’m delighted that PRS Foundation are partnering with our friends at the Arts Foundation to once again shine a light on outstanding music creators. Now is the time to recognise those music creators whose work covers climate action, sustainability and other areas of social concerns and so it is fantastic to see that this will form the criteria of the category we are supporting this year. I very much look forward to finding out which music creators in this field are nominated over the coming months.’

The Arts Foundation and PRS Foundation support the vision of the transformative role of culture and creativity and believe that interventions can enable and accelerate positive change on a larger scale, embedding deep ecological principles into the everyday.

Director of the Arts Foundation, Shelley Warren, added, ‘Artists and arts organisations are increasingly being called upon to activate the social imagination, making available new ways to know and understand an increasingly complex world. Artists provide a critical lens that educates, and holds a mirror to society, influencing what gets attention in the public sphere and shaping perspective and opinion. We are delighted to be supporting with PRS Foundation such creatives with this award.’

The Award comes at a time when the global pandemic has further identified a wide range of issues related to how society works and the importance of social cohesion and community as well as the shift in focus to local issues, social exclusion and poverty. The Music for Change Award acknowledges these changes and hopes to highlight those music and sound makers who are helping to inspire and educate future generations about the important issues of today.

Four finalists, from a longlist of music creators will be selected later this year. The finalists will be nominated by music experts from around the UK.

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