Grantham Climate Art Prize 2026: Design a thriving, vibrant city full of nature and innovation
A 20-metre mural, based on a design by a 12-year-old boy, depicting a thriving, vibrant city full of nature and innovation is now on show at Imperial College’s White City campus. The mural is the 14th in the Grantham Climate Art Prize series, which invites young people to create public art drawing attention to the climate crisis and ways of living more sustainably.
The design by Christopher Simmons, who has special educational needs, was one of almost 200 submitted for this year’s Art Prize. It was adapted into a striking mural by professional mural artist Jeru Nomi and assistant artist Julia Austen. The project was part of White City Campus Public Art Strategy and the materials for the mural and exhibition were funded thanks to sponsors Careys, Mace, 2468 and Nivek.
Christopher received a £500 prize thanks to sponsors Taste Catering Limited and AJ Staffing Solutions. He will also receive a selection of art materials from sponsor Colart.
The mural is the second at Imperial College London and follows the installation of a mural in Dalby Court at Imperial’s South Kensington campus last May. Other Art Prize murals are located across Great Britain in cities including Coventry, Glasgow and Nottingham. There are three others in London (in Tower Hamlets, West Norwood and Nine Elms).
I love drawing and painting, and my work shows the city where people, nature, and technology live together happily.- Christopher, 2026 Art Prize winner
"The picture I created is a future that I would like to see one day, and I wanted to share something positive that could make people feel happy and inspired too," says Christopher. "The artwork shows simple, positive ideas like clean energy, green spaces, and better ways to travel. It shares a positive message about working together to make a better and more hopeful future.”
Judging panel members described Christopher’s entry as “lively and engagingly human”. Artist Jeru Nomi, who ran workshops in several schools with Grantham researcher Elsy Milan and who was on the Art Prize judging panel, says: “It has been a great opportunity working alongside the Grantham Institute to promote their valuable work. Running creative workshops with young people really engaged them with the research. It was great to see the ideas that came out of those workshops. Christopher, the winner, really understood the themes and created something bright and fun. It was a pleasure transforming his design into something that will bring inspiration and joy to passers-by.”
Runners up and highly commended
Two exhibitions are now on view on either side of the mural. One exhibition shows Christopher’s original design, two designs by runners-up and three designs by young people who were highly commended by the judging panel. Runners up received £250 in prizes again thanks to sponsors Taste Catering Limited and AJ Staffing Solutions. They are:
- Age 15 – 18: White City Reimagined: Sustainable Design, Shared Spaces and Urban Hope, by Egshig Enkhbat age 17 [pictured above, bottom left]
- Age 19 – 25: City of Colour, City of Care, by Isobel Linton age 23 [pictured above, second from top]
The young people who received Highly Commended awards are:
- The City that Grew Back, by Dominika Gunia age 20 [pictured above, third from top]
- The Future in our Hands, by Alexandra Iakovleva age 13 [pictured above, bottom right]
- The Greener Greater Future Awaits, by Kaviranchana Subramanian age 14 [pictured above, top]
Alongside the mural and exhibition of runners up and highly commended designs will be an exhibition from our 2023 art prize on Imperial College Road highlighting the 9 things you can do about climate change.
Thank you so much to all the young people who took part – the almost 200 entries show how much their generation care about creating a better, more sustainable world full of nature, innovation and community.Linsey Wynton, Senior Outreach and Communications Officer.
Background
The Art Prize is an award from the Grantham Institute that invites young people to design murals drawing attention to the climate crisis and the need for action to create a more sustainable world.
The 2026 Art Prize theme invited young people aged 11 – 25 from schools, colleges and universities to submit a vision of a thriving, vibrant city full of nature and innovation. They were asked to consider six themes:
- How will we build, heat and light our homes and cities?
- Where will we shop?
- What will we do with our waste?
- How will we get around?
- Where will we source our food and drink?
- How much nature will there be and where?
The history of the Grantham Climate Art Prize
The Grantham Institute launched the Grantham Climate Art Prize in 2018 to draw attention to the climate crisis through art. The prize began with an exhibition in the Blyth Gallery but took to the streets from 2021 inviting young people to design street murals that were then painted by professional artists.
Art has the potential to inspire minds and touch emotions in a way that science alone often finds challenging.
Martin Siegert, Visiting Professor at the Grantham Institute
Previous themes have included British biodiversity loss (2021) and a greener, cleaner, cooler world (2023), inspired by the Grantham Institute’s 9 things you can do about climate change.
Winning and runner-up Art Prize designs have also been on display at COP26 and COP30, in two Natural History Museum Real World Science Network museums, beside Battersea Power Station, on billboards across London’s transport hubs, on Sherfield Walkway at South Kensington Campus and at Hammersmith Hospital’s Library.
“Through this project I’ve learned the value of art and how it complements science – topics I spent months studying can be captured in a visually striking way that speaks to all.
- Mahamood Mubarak, former Grantham Institute PhD student and Art Prize workshop volunteer.
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