Details of this year’s Turnip Prize held annually in the village of Wedmore have been announced. The evening is a spoof of the prestigious Turner Prize which is awarded to a British artist - and in some years, has attracted even more interest than the real event.
Just over an hour from Bristol, Wedmore is a Somerset village home to just over 3,000 residents and has earned its place on the global map with its unique art awards, where "entries should take the least amount of work possible".
Trevor Prideaux, organiser of the Turnip Prize, said the award came about after a lively pub conversation among a group of locals about art installation 'My Bed' by Tracey Emin in 1999. It featured the artist’s unmade bed, complete with bits of leftover food and grubby sheets.
Read next: Jack Whitehall adds new Bristol dates to upcoming tour after huge demand
The installation had been shortlisted for the famous Turner Prize. It was sold for £2.5m at Christie’s in 2014.
This week, Trevor said 2023's awards will be celebrating 25 years of the Turnip Prize. Even though well over 100 entries are received every year from around the globe, Trevor routinely sticks to 69 entries every year during press interviews.
Trevor said: “We’ve taken it forward since that conversation so many years ago, so let’s see if we can come up with some works of art with the least amount of work possible.” For wannabe winners, sticking to that minimum effort level is a key factor when it comes to claiming the Turnip Prize trophy.
Every year the awards evening is held in The New Inn, which has a reputation for the serving some of the best steak in Somerset on a Wednesday evening. The New Inn’s landlord Alex Herriot said the Turnip Prize award evening, which is always held on the same evening as the Turner Prize awards evening in London, was televised live last year.
Alex said: “I think it got more coverage than the Turner Prize awards last year. We had well over 100 entries last year from all over the UK, Australia, the States and Europe.
“The idea is the minimum amount of effort. If you put in too much effort, your entry is discarded.” He said entries open on November 1 and close on November 21.
During those three weeks, entries are displayed in the windows and bar of The New Inn as they are received. This year there will also be an exhibition of previous winning entries.
The village attracts many visitors in the run-up to the awards evening and Alex said the most commonly suggested ideas have been a coat hanger representing ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ and a plain piece of paper labelled ‘Flat White’.
He said: “Some people come in with those and think they have suggested winners. Entries have been sent to us before and people ask if I can send them back - no, it’s rubbish and it’s meant to be rubbish.
Get Bristol Voices news straight to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter here
“If they don’t collect them, they’ll be put on a sacrificial bonfire or recycled,” he said. An exhibition of previous winners and finalists will be held from November 1-8, during the first week that entries open.
Entries can be posted to or left at The New Inn, Combe Batch, Wedmore, Somerset, BS28 4DU. Entrants should include their name or pseudonym, contact phone number and the title of their entry.
The winner will be announced at The New Inn, Wedmore at 6pm on December 5. Entries should take the least amount of effort to create. For more information, visit The Turnip Prize page on Facebook.
