The Paul Hamlyn Foundation has announced the eight recipients of its 2012 Awards for Artists. This year three composers and five visual artists each receive the increased £50,000 grant over three years - the largest award of its kind in the UK. Unlike many other awards programmes, which stipulate how the money should be spent, the Paul Hamlyn grants come with ‘no strings attached’, allowing each recipient ‘the freedom to develop their creative ideas and contributing to their personal and professional growth’.

This year’s recipients are composers Steve Beresford, Eliza Carthy and Edmund Finnis, and visual artists Ed Atkins, Pavel Büchler, Andy Holden, Elizabeth Price and Lis Rhodes.

‘This is the sixth year that the Awards have recognised composers alongside visual artists and we are always impressed by the quality and inventiveness of work that we find across a range of genres,’ said Aldeburgh Music chief executive and Paul Hamlyn judging panel chair for composers Jonathan Reekie. ‘The three composers we have selected this year give a taste of the extraordinarily high standard of composition that we find in the UK today.’

Given annually since 1994, the PHF Awards have given more than £4m to artists and composers. This year the Foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary with some major endowments. The first, announced in October, was a £5m gift to the Paul Hamlyn Roundhouse Studios at the Roundhouse in north London.