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Erarta Museum is closed on Tuesdays
Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art is located at: 2, 29th line of Vasilievsky Ostrov, St. Petersburg
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Erarta Museum is open every day except Tuesdays from 11:00 to 23:00
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Prize rules & regulations

   

The Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art proudly presents the 2026 Erarta Prize with a total prize value of 3.5 million rubles. This is the only contemporary art prize awarded through a public vote rather than by a board of experts. This makes the Erarta Prize essentially different from other art prizes, reflecting the key principles of Erarta Museum:

  • any work of art is a product of joint effort of its creator and the viewer, thus making the viewer a vital part of the creative process;

  • art speaks to everyone, and not just the professional community;

  • sharing becomes the spirit of the present time, and contemporary art should keep up with it;

  • it is more important to love art than to be able to judge it according to generally accepted criteria.

Helping people to grow to love contemporary art is a crucial part of Erarta Museum’s mission. In keeping with it, Erarta encourages the viewers to select their favourite artwork according to their own choices and preferences. The museum acts as the curator of the contestants’ exhibition (selecting the exhibits and staging the actual show), but neither takes part in determining the winners nor invites other experts from the professional community to do so.

The nominees’ exhibition held at Erarta’s Grand Hall from 6 February through 7 June 2026 showcases 40 creations by our contemporaries selected by the museum out of the entire pool of open call submissions. The voting takes place in two rounds:

  • At the close of the first voting round, scheduled to last from 6 February through 20 April, 15 artists ranked from 40th to 26th will receive a guaranteed reward of 50,000 rubles each. 15 more artists ranked from 25th to 11th will be awarded 75,000 rubles each. The top 10 artists securing the majority of votes in the first voting round will qualify for the second.

  • In the second voting round, from 21 April through 3 June, the 10 shortlisted artworks will compete for the following money prizes: the artists ultimately ranking from 10th to 6th are guaranteed to win 100,000 rubles each; the top five artists will receive 125,000 rubles for the 5th place, 150,000 rubles for the 4th, 175,000 rubles for the 3rd, 200,000 rubles for the 2nd, and the Grand Prix of 500,000 rubles for the 1st place respectively.

For the 2026 edition of the Prize, all nominated artists enjoy the opportunity to sell their works featured in the exhibition through the agency of the museum. Now the viewers not only have their say in the prize money distribution, but can also purchase their favourite artwork, lending additional support to its creator. All nominated exhibits that are sold prior to the awarding of the Prize will remain on display for the duration of the show and will be transferred to their new owners only after the project’s results are announced. To find out more, please call the Erarta Prize Curatorial Team at +7 (921) 655 96 86.

Erarta Museum will have no power over the vote whatsoever. Every viewer has one vote for each of the two rounds. The number of votes will not be cumulative from round to round: after the first voting round, it will be reset to zero so that all artists compete on equal terms. After all voting procedures are complete, anyone wishing to do so will be able to assure themselves of the fair and unbiased nature of the vote.

Entries for the Prize can be submitted by the creators (artists and artist collectives) of any contemporary artworks existing in tangible form (thus excluding action and performance art) regardless of the artists’ place of residence and actual background in contemporary art and irrespective of the year of the artwork’s creation and its genre or medium, be it painting, drawing, print, sculpture, photography, video, multimedia or installation art, as well as any other contemporary art form. Entries submitted by a party who did not create the corresponding artwork will not be accepted, even if the said party is the legal successor to or official representative of the relevant artist. One artist can submit up to three artworks, although only one piece by every artist will be selected for the exhibition. The artwork does not necessarily need to be in the private ownership of the artist taking part in the exhibition: artworks temporarily lent by their current owners may also be exhibited. The Museum does not ask anything in return for the Prize paid out to the winner; however, in order to take part in the project artists must prove their authorship and actual existence of the artwork (any artworks nonexistent as at the entry submission date will not be accepted), as well as give Erarta Museum the right of public display of the artworks and their promotional use in connection with the exhibition.

Artists are welcome to address any inquiries to Erarta Museum’s Curatorial Team by emailing them at erartaprize@erarta.ru