The Thinking Hand is an annual scholarship competition for young draftspeople. The nominees and their artwork are displayed in a digital gallery here on the website every spring.
HM THE KING'S SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION is open to young draftspeople working with visual interpretation within art, architecture, fashion, design, illustration, game development and other related fields. The scholarship competition and exhibition is a collaboration between the Royal Court and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
The exhibition
The nominees work will be displayed 25 April – 25 June 2025 in a digital gallery at Royalpalaces.se
Nominees 2025
Sofia Mollberg, Rebecka Tollens, Alexander Bäckman, Isak Smedfors Heldt, Tekla Bergman Fröberg, Fanny Hellgren, Linn Karlsson, Josefin Selander, Nils Ekman, Hugo Wikström Regan
the scholarship competition
The competition is advertised yearly in January at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts' website. More about the annual scholarship competition
A JURY appoints three of the nominees to the scholarships, each receiving SEK 100,000. The jury consists of HRH Prince Carl Philip, Elisabeth Alsheimer Evenstedt, Permanent Secretary at the the Royal Academy, artist Ernst Billgren, architect Louise Masreliez and artist John Stenborg. The scholarship recipients will be announced in May. The exhibition will be displayed mid April to mid June.
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.
