About theCOLAB / RCA / YSP Graduate Award

Originally established in 2015, the Award took on an expanded form when theCOLAB was invited to select the winner(s) following the pandemic in 2021.  theCOLAB offers a residency and the opportunity for an artist graduating from Royal College of Art’s MA Sculpture programme to undertake a residency in the Artist’s Hut, to have vital exposure to the public and to be taken through the complex process of creating outdoor public sculpture.  It provides vital support and a platform for thinking and making at the critical transition stage from being a student to independent artist. This builds on YSP’s long-standing commitment to supporting artists at every stage of their career. The award is bespoke to each recipient and establishes long-term relationships and opportunities.  Alex Hodby (YSP) and Claire Mander (theCOLAB) selected Hannah Hoebeke from the RCA MA Sculpture Degree Show in 2025.  She joins Camilla Bliss, Abigail Norris, Rong Bao, Annabel Tennyson-Davies and Flora Duley as recipient of the award.

About Hannah Hoebeke

Hannah Hoebeke is an artist from Ghent, Belgium who sculpts portraits of the often overlooked and under celebrated. From queer hairdressers in Argentina to the facilitating staff at the Royal College of Art who keep the building running but often remain unseen. Hoebeke is interested in the dialogue between artist and sitter. She sculpts her subjects not in the exclusive, private domain of the studio but in public, community spaces. Hoebeke graduated from the MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London (2025) and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (2022).

About the Artist’s Garden

The Artist’s Garden was a neglected public space, reclaimed as a platform for women artists and launched in 2021.  Built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette in 1870 as part of Victoria Embankment to resolve the ‘Great Stink’, it is thought to be on the site of Lord and Lady Arundel’s seventeenth century garden where they displayed England’s first classical sculpture collection. The 1,400 sqm space is invisible from street level and reached by well-worn steps at the top of which a massive space opens up, offering spectacular views from the Houses of Parliament to Tate Modern.  The Artist’s Garden opened in October 2021 with Lakwena’s ‘Back in the Air: a Meditation on Higher Ground’. Growing organically and overlaying the first, the second major commission by Heywood & Condie, ‘Through the Cosmic Allotment’ explores plant human communication through landscapes installed in four greenhouses exploring aspects of our cosmic understanding of landscape. This was followed by Holly Hendry’s first public sculpture in London ‘Slackwater’ and is now the site of MARY MARY a nine artist strong exhibition of the contrary and cacophonous work of 

‘The Artist’s Garden’ is supported by and realised in partnership with Westminster City Council.  With thanks to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Royal College of Art, WSP UK, and with kind permission of LUL/Transport for London. The Artist’s Garden and its collaboration with RCA/YSP will continue until the end of 2025.

For more information, images or to arrange an interview please contact info@thecolab.art and visit www.thecolab.art