REGULATIONS

The awards for Textile Artist of the Year and Young Textile Artist of the Year, as well as the recognition for Textile Achievement of the Year, are professional acknowledgments presented annually under the auspices of the Estonian Textile Artists' Association (ETAA). The awards ceremony is organized by the ETAA board.

The Estonian Textile Artists Association has been awarding the Textile Artist of the Year prize since 1996.

The Textile Artist of the Year award is a recognition by the Estonian Textile Artists Association  for professional activity in the field of textile art and design.

• Only members of the ETAA are eligible to apply for the award.
• To be considered for the Textile Artist of the Year award, the board of ETAA selects nominees from among its members based on their creative activities in the respective calendar year.
• The board presents up to seven nominees to the jury formed for selecting the Textile Artist of the Year.
• Typically, a textile artist who has been awarded Textile Artist of the Year in the previous year is not nominated.

The Young Textile Artist of the Year award is a recognition by the Estonian Textile Artists Association (ETAA) for professional activity in the field of textile art and design.
Textile artists or designers up to the age of 35 are eligible to apply for the award.
Membership in ETAA is not required for candidacy.
Students are also eligible to apply.
When submitting supervised work, there must be a reference to the school and supervisor.
Independent creative projects are preferred in awarding the prize.
To apply, candidates must submit, by the deadline determined by the ETAA board, photographic material along with information about the works, exhibitions, and/or projects** completed during the previous calendar year. Materials can be submitted in hard copy or electronically.

** A project can be an exhibition that encompasses creativity over a longer period than one year, as well as a product development project, or any other long-term professional endeavor.


The Textile Achievement of the Year award is a recognition given for a significant socio-cultural impact achieved in the field of textile art or design during the previous calendar year. The recognition also encompasses educational, publishing, and other activities supporting the development of the profession.

• All members of the ETAA are eligible to nominate candidates for the Textile Achievement of the Year recognition.
• The recipient of the recognition does not have to be a member of ETAA.
• Proposals, along with explanatory information, must be submitted to the ETAA board in writing (either in hard copy or electronically) by the deadline determined by the board.

The authors selected as nominees for Textile Artist of the Year and the candidates for the Young Textile Artist of the Year award shall submit a portfolio of their works to the jury, which includes visual material and an overview of exhibitions and projects. Optionally, they may also include written articles, reviews, publications, or other supplementary materials at the author's discretion.

• If only one artist or designer applies for a particular type of award, the jury decides whether to award the prize based on the submitted materials and the context of textile-related activities from the previous calendar year.
• The jury also has the opportunity to highlight outstanding authors in various categories (for example: best product, best interior design, best textile-related writing, best group exhibition, etc.) in addition to the aforementioned recognitions and to award a lifetime achievement prize.

The award distribution is organized by the board of ETAA, which includes compiling the submitted materials, convening the jury, issuing press releases about the results, determining the time and place for award presentation, and arranging exhibitions for the awardees whenever possible. Along with the awards, recipients receive a diploma and possibly a monetary prize. The main emphasis is on striving to achieve greater recognition for both the award-winning authors and the field of textile art and design in general.

The Jury

• Previous Year's Textile Artist
• Previous Year's Young Textile Artist
• Representative of the Estonian Artists' Association
• Representative of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design
• Representative of the Estonian Association of Interior Architects or the Estonian Association of Designers
• Press Representative
• Art Historian

Scoring system

Evaluation is conducted in writing with score sheets.

1st place: 5 points
2nd place: 4 points
3rd place: 3 points
4th place: 2 points
5th place: 1 point

In case of a tie, the winner is the one with the most maximum points.

If multiple candidates have equal maximum points, a jury vote is held.

The jury's decision is final and discussions within the jury are confidential.

Results are not disclosed until the award ceremony.

Textile Artist of the Year Prize Winners from 1996 to 2023