Absolut has announced the jury for the 2017 Absolut Art Award, which will be led by Stockholm’s Moderna Museet director Daniel Birnbaum, as well as the launch of a new prize: the Emerging Artist Award.

The jury for the 2017 Art Award will be formed by Elena Filipovic, chief curator of Kunstahalle Basel; Jack Bankowsky, curator and editor-at-large of Art Forum; Polly Staple, director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery; and Simon Castets, director and curator at New York’s Swiss Institute.

“We are delighted to announce this year’s Jury and begin our search for the winners of the 2017 Absolut Art Award. The Award offers artists and art writers the opportunity to realize their dream project and it is great to be able to support creative talent in this way,” Saskia Neuman, global art manager at Absolut and director of the Absolut Art Award, said in a statement.

Absolut Art Award Jury Member, Elena Filipovic. Photo Zlatko Micic, 2015.

“There are those rare awards in the cultural field that don’t only honor what has already been achieved, but also function as catalysts for things yet to come,” said Birnbaum in a statement.” The Absolut Art Award has established itself as one of these inspirational prizes, both for the most relevant artists and the key voices in contemporary art writing. I am honored to chair the 2017 installment of the award,” he added.

Last year’s award was won by Frances Stark in the Art Work category and Mark Godfrey in the Art Writing category. Stark was selected from a shortlist that included artists Camille Henrot and Trisha Donnelly.

Stark’s resulting work, pedagogical opera of Mozart’s The Magic Flute will be unveiled in autumn 2016. Mark Godfrey is editing The Black Art Debate, an anthology on African-American art in the 1960s and 70s.

The Art Work category comprises of €20,000 cash prize as well as a €100,000 prize towards the production of the winning artwork and the winner of the Art Writing category will receive a €20,000 cash prize and €25,000 towards the production of a new art publication.

The winner in the new Emerging Artist category, who will be picked from a selection of artists under 40 that have collaborated with the brand between 2015 and 2017, will receive €20,000 as a cash prize and a budget of €25,000 to realize the winning project.