Sky Arts Awards
annual accolade recognizing British achievements in the arts
The Sky Arts Awards (formerly The South Bank Show Awards and The South Bank Sky Arts Awards) are an accolade recognising British and Irish achievements in the arts. The awards have been given annually since 1997.
They originated with the long-running British arts programme The South Bank Show and Melvyn Bragg, who has served as patron, host and master of ceremonies of the awards until his retirement from the show in late 2023.
The last South Bank Show Awards ceremony to be broadcast by ITV was in January 2010 and was held at The Dorchester hotel in London. After the network announced that The South Bank Show would be cancelled at the end of the 2009 season, the awards ceremony continued to be broadcast by Sky Arts and was eventually renamed the South Bank Sky Arts Awards. Sky Arts revived The South Bank Show itself in 2012.
In 2024, the ceremony's name was simplified after the final season of The South Bank Show in 2023. Although press releases refer to these as the inaugural Sky Arts Awards, the categories remained unchanged from previous ceremonies, although two new ones were added, namely Poetry and Arts Hero, the latter an award dedicated to celebrating the unsung heroes whose work behind the scenes in the arts sector is invaluable.
Award categories
In addition to awards in each of the individual categories, the Sky Arts Awards also include the Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Award recognising lifetime contributions to the arts in Britain, and the Times Breakthrough Award recognising outstanding new British talent. The latter being the only category that is decided by a public vote.
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