Paul Hamlyn Foundation Names Charlotte Keeffe and Ayanna Witter-Johnson Among 2026 Awards

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2026 Awards for Artists, naming ten visual artists and composers who will each receive £75,000 with no strings attached. The awards were announced at a ceremony in central London on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Among the five composers are Charlotte Keeffe, a multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and freely improvising trumpeter, and Ayanna Witter-Johnson, a composer, singer and cellist whose work bridges classical composition, jazz improvisation and Afro-diasporic traditions.

According to the foundation's official notice, the composer cohort also includes Olivia Chaney, Bushra El-Turk and Daudi Matsiko. The five visual artists named this year are Linda Bell, Racheal Crowther, Rory Pilgrim, Georgina Starr and Hayley Tompkins. Now in its 32nd year, Awards for Artists supports practitioners at a critical moment in their careers; artists are free to use the money as they wish. Over 31 years the scheme has distributed £12.79 million to 377 artists across the UK, the foundation said.

Keeffe, whose albums for Discus Music include Right Here, Right Now (2021) and ALIVE! (2023), with Circles listed for 2027, treats her trumpets as "sound brushes," moving between delicacy and intensity, structure and spontaneity. Jazzwise's Nov. 5 report highlighted her and Witter-Johnson as the two composers with strong jazz roots in this year's list. Witter-Johnson places voice and cello at the centre of genre-fluid sound worlds exploring identity, heritage and storytelling, and performs and presents classical music internationally.

Writer and broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre chaired the composers' judging panel for a fifth successive year. In the foundation's statement he said there is often a barrier to who has the chance to become a composer, and that the no-strings nature of the awards aims to encourage diversity, originality and risk. Jane Hamlyn chaired the visual arts panel. UK Jazz News covered the composer winners the same evening; Jazzwise and The Strad followed with confirmations of the £75,000 figure and the jazz-linked recipients.

For JazzLib readers, the jazz interest centres on Keeffe's improvising practice and Witter-Johnson's jazz-classical crossover rather than on a single album drop. The awards themselves are career support, not a prize for a specific recording, and the foundation's Nov. 4 page is the definitive primary source for names, amounts and judging remarks.