This annual prize is awarded to one outstanding undergraduate and one postgraduate Birkbeck student who, with their written work, has excelled in contributing to the broader understanding of cultural policy and arts management, especially by looking at cultural flows, cultural work (including internships), and equality and justice in the cultural sector.  

The prize is in honour of our dear colleague Lorraine Lim who passed away in September 2017. Dr Lim worked on cultural policy and industries from the perspective of cultural flows (conditioned by artists’ activism, censorship and cultural trade) and broadened her interest to areas such as creative labour, internship policies and networks in the cultural sector.

The prize-winning essays will be made public on this website.

The first awards were made on 8 March 2018. Details of the prize winners and their essays can be found here.

The second round of awards can be found here.

The third round of awards can be found here.

The fourth round of awards can be found here.

Call for submissions

We ask tutors to nominate suitable work follows this line of enquiry in cultural policy studies. Only submissions that have already been assessed internally are eligible.

Selection criteria

    • Relevance and interest in the broad and inclusive understanding of Cultural Policy. We welcome submissions that explore the issues of cultural flows, cultural work and labour, equality, justice, inclusion and giving voices to marginalised communities (0-5 marks)  
    • Originality of the essay (0-5 marks)  
    • Potential contribution to discussing broad cultural policy implications or identifying areas for policy intervention   (0-5 marks)  
    • Meeting of academic style guidelines, including spelling, grammar, citation and referencing (0-5 marks) 

Judging panel

The work will be judged by a panel with the following members:

  • Hye-Kyung Lee (King’s College London)
  • Sophie Hope and Simone Wesner (Arts Management team)
  • Janet McCabe and Emma Sandon (FMACS)
  • Leonard Lim (Lorraine’s brother)

Submission deadline for academic year 2021/22: TBC.

Prize: One Postgraduate MA prize of £500, one Undergraduate prize of £300 and a runner up prize of £100.

Open to: Birkbeck BA and MA students (college-wide)

Tutors can use the link to the form to nominate essays.