Proposals for the Social Impact Arts Prize Fellowship for 2026 are open until Mar 15, 2026. This year's theme is "where earth meets sky" – focusing on the climate crisis's impact on the environment, people, and society in the Karoo. Find the details here.
Shaping social change through art
“Social impact is inherently based on a beneficial change in relational dynamics, on the strengthening and enrichment of ties between people, and within the more-than-human world,” says prize director Roelof van Wyk. “We aim to select a diverse and yet aligned set of impactful projects that bring generative insights to an expanded notion of the social.”
HOW IT BEGAN
The prize debuted in 2020 with a call for site-specific projects in the Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet – and the results were as imaginative as they were community-rooted: an installation sharing local medicinal plant knowledge; a mass choir composition responding to the climate crisis; and an artificial rain cloud sculpture that doubled as a free WiFi hub.
Since then, the initiative has broadened its reach, inviting artists, architects, designers, makers – and now, for the first time, writers – to reflect on social change through creative practice. Alternating biennially between Stellenbosch and Graaff-Reinet, the 2026 edition returns to the Karoo’s dramatic Valley of Desolation. Successful applicants will receive grant funding and a residency in Graaff-Reinet to develop deeply situated, long-term projects.
WHY GRAAFF-REINET?
Photo: Noncedo Gxekwa.
“Graaff-Reinet has been selected as the site for several reasons,” explains SIAP chairperson Hanneli Rupert-Elias. “It was the birthplace of my grandfather, Anton Rupert, who, alongside my grandmother Huberte, first established the Rupert Art Foundation. He was a broad thinker who drew inspiration from the stillness and wisdom of nature. What better place to host an artistic fellowship than this ancient landscape – a place that already attracts leading palaeontologists, environmentalists, and travellers from around the globe, and which reminds us of humans’ place in the world while setting the stage for our fellows to forge new paths forward.”
For 2026, the fellowship deepens its roots by partnering with several Graaff-Reinet institutions, inviting applicants to work meaningfully with them: from Karoo Origins – The Fossil Centre and Reinet House to the Old Residency, Jan Rupert Art Centre, the Hester Rupert Art Museum, and organisations such as SANParks.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Proposals for the Social Impact Arts Prize Fellowship for 2026 are open until Mar 15, 2026. Find out how to apply here.
Keep an eye on @socialimpactartsprize26 on Instagram and rupertmuseum.org for updates.
Award recipients will be announced at the Rupert Museum at the end of March 2026.
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