All competitions · Prize / award
Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards
City of Ekurhuleni – Arts, Culture and Heritage Directorate · Ekurhuleni, South Africa
City of Ekurhuleni's national fine arts competition for South African citizens aged 18+, entered online with a R50 fee per work. First prize R100,000, Ekurhuleni Prize R60,000 with solo show, merit awards R120,000; 2026 entry dates not yet published.
Your eligibility
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Who can enter
- Location
- South Africa (by nationality)
- Age
- 18 and over
- Career stage
- Any
- Mediums
- Painting, Textile & fibre, Sculpture, Drawing, Collage, Ceramics & glass, Digital art, Photography, Illustration, Mixed media
- Work made
- Within the last 1 years
- Size limits
- Multimedia works max 3 minutes (MP4)
- Submission
- Online submission
- Also
- South African citizens only (ID copy required), over 18; works completed within 12 months of entry and not previously awarded.
About
The Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards is a contemporary fine arts competition hosted and sponsored by the City of Ekurhuleni in honour of resistance artist Thami Mnyele. It is open to amateur and professional South African citizens over 18, with entries submitted digitally online (up to four images per 2D or 3D work, or one multimedia work of up to three minutes) and a non-refundable fee of R50 per artwork.
Eligible media include painting, textile, sculpture and relief, drawing (ink, pastel, gouache, watercolour), decorative art, collage, ceramics, digital art, photography, illustration and graphic posters. Works must have been completed within 12 months of entry and not have won another award; 100 works are selected for the exhibition in Ekurhuleni.
The organiser's site lists the 2026 adjudication panel and prizes: First Prize R100,000; Ekurhuleni Prize R60,000 with a solo exhibition at SAG; Honourable Mention R15,000; a R10,000 prize with a three-month August House emerging artist residency; and four R30,000 merit awards (painting, sculpture, multimedia, works on paper). Entry dates for the current round were not stated on the pages read; the 2023 edition had been postponed indefinitely.