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Den Tänkande Handen Vårutställning på Kungliga Slottet

The Thinking Hand

The Thinking Hand is an annual scholarship competition for young draftspeople, and a collaboration between the Royal Court and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

the scholarship competition

The competition is advertised yearly in January at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts' website External link, opens in new window.

The exhibition

The nominees work will be displayed in a digital gallery, yearly in spring at Royalpalaces.se

The competition is open to young draftspeople working with visual interpretation within art, architecture, fashion, design, illustration, games development or other related fields. Applicants do not need to be professionals or to have a formal arts education.

Three of the nominees will receive scholarships, with each receiving SEK 100,000. The aim is to recognise specific knowledge and the interaction between eye and hand, in order to develop thoughts about visual interpretation and to enhance its status.

The competition is being arranged by Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and around a nominees entries will be displayed in a digital exhibition, arranged by The Royal Court.

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts was founded at the Royal Palace of Stockholm in 1735, with the aim of supporting trainee painters, sculptors and architects. More than 280 years later, this aim lives on in the form of the new scholarship fund.

The fund was established on The King's birthday in 2016 by Elisabeth and Gustaf Douglas to support young professionals who work with draftsmanship.

Press images External link.

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts' website External link, opens in new window.

The competition is advertised on the Royal Academy of Fine Arts' website, open to young draftsmen working with visual interpretation within art, architecture, fashion, design, illustration, games development or other related fields..Photo: Lisa Raihle Rehbäck/Royalpalaces.se

The exhibition features nominated entries from H.M. The King's Scholarship Competition for Young Draftsmen. Here, The King is seen at the opening of the 2017 exhibition. Photo: Sanna Argus Tirén/Royalpalaces.se

The scholarship recipients of 2022, Simon Persson, Kayo Mpoyi and Gabriel Gabriel Garble, at the scholarship award in Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities at the Royal palace. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

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In the Bernadotte Family, each generation has shown a commitment to culture and a desire to support those who work with art. We wish to wish to make special mention of Gustaf VI Adolf, a founding member of the Friends of the National Museum in 1911 and whose many years of support for the National Museum's drawing competition 'Young Draftsmen' has been a source of inspiration for the drawing competition 'The Thinking Hand'. Using his position to bring attention to, aid and support young artists was a matter of course for the former king, as it is for our current King and his son Prince Carl Philip, who has served on the jury for the scholarship competition since its inception in 2017.

Photo: Crown prince Gustaf (VI) Adolf with his uncle prince Eugen, one of Swedens most talented landscape artist of the time. Photo from the Bernadotte Library.

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