The 2023/2024 judges

Enuma Okoro is a Nigerian-American writer and cultural curator. Her research and writing interests include the visual and literary arts, contemplative eco-spirituality, intersectional feminist critical theory and the study of the human condition, and how we live. A weekly columnist for the Financial Times Weekend, 'The Art of Life', she also curates, moderates, and hosts public conversations with artists, writers, culture makers, spiritual practitioners, and thought leaders. She has written and edited four nonfiction books, and her short stories and poetry have been published in anthologies. Her essays and articles have been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Aeon, Vogue, The Cut, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Bazaar, Artsy, Catapult, NYU Washington Review, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Essence, NPR, ABC's Good Morning America, and other media outlets.

Enuma was born in Manhattan, and raised in Cote d’Ivoire, England, North America and Nigeria.

Sally Shaw MBE has been the Director of Firstsite, Colchester for the last seven years. With the Firstsite team, she has delivered an exceptional turnaround programme realigning the gallery with a highly creative and relevant purpose, targeted at deploying art and culture as a means of addressing critical challenges in the community, such as deprivation, food poverty and inequity. Her focus on ground-up community collaboration, combined with exceptional quality contemporary art, has led Firstsite to be recognised nationally and internationally for the gallery's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to win Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2021.

Sally is also a member of Arts Council England National Council and chairs the South East Area Board. Previously Sally was Head of Programme at Modern Art Oxford; Deputy Head of Culture for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson; Chief Curator for London Underground; Director of Media Art – Bath; and Residency Programme Manager at Spike Island, Bristol. She has also established a number of independent projects and programmes including an artist residency programme in an open prison in Gloucestershire.

The 2022/2023 judges

Ruth Millington – art historian, critic, and author of Muse (Penguin, 2022)
Sarah Munro – Director of The Baltic

The 2021/2022 judges

Jo Baring – art historian and Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art
Arike Oke – cultural leader, registered archivist, curator and museology consultant
Sutapa Biswas – artist

The 2020/2021 judges

Emma Dabiri – author, academic and broadcaster
Alastair Sooke – writer, broadcaster, and chief art critic of The Telegraph
Lubaina Himid – artist and winner of the 2017 Turner Prize
Iwona Blazwick – Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, curator, critic and lecturer

The 2019/2020 judges

Hettie Judah – art critic and writer
Sir Simon Schama – art critic, historian and writer
Karen Gregory – author
Simon Groom – Director of Modern & Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland

The 2018/2019 judges

Val McDermid – Scottish crime writer
Hammad Nasar – Curator, writer, researcher, and Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
Louisa Buck – art critic and contemporary art correspondent for The Art Newspaper

The 2017/2018 judges

Dr Gabriele Finaldi – Director of the National Gallery
Jackie Wullschlager – Chief Art Critic of the Financial Times
Jeremy Deller – Turner Prize winner
Dr David Dibosa – Course Leader for MA Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts
Dr Janina Ramirez – cultural historian and broadcaster

The judges