
The Thinking Hand
The Thinking Hand is a scholarship competition for young draftsmen, an annual collaboration between the Royal Court and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
The competition is open to young draftsmen working with visual interpretation within art, architecture, fashion, design, illustration, games development or other related fields. Applicants do not need to be professionals or to have a formal arts education.
Three of the nominees will receive scholarships, with each receiving SEK 100,000. The aim is to recognise specific knowledge and the interaction between eye and hand, in order to develop thoughts about visual interpretation and to enhance its status.
The competition is being arranged by Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and around a nominees entries will be displayed in a digital exhibition, arranged by The Royal Court.
The exhibition
The nominees work will be displayed in a digital gallery April to June, at web page:
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts was founded at the Royal Palace of Stockholm in 1735, with the aim of supporting trainee painters, sculptors and architects. More than 280 years later, this aim lives on in the form of the new scholarship fund.
The fund was established on The King's birthday in 2016 by Elisabeth and Gustaf Douglas to support young professionals who work with draftsmanship.

The competition is advertised on the Royal Academy of Fine Arts' website, open to young draftsmen working with visual interpretation within art, architecture, fashion, design, illustration, games development or other related fields..Photo: Lisa Raihle Rehbäck/Royalpalaces.se

The exhibition features nominated entries from H.M. The King's Scholarship Competition for Young Draftsmen. Here, The King is seen at the opening of the 2017 exhibition. Photo: Sanna Argus Tirén/Royalpalaces.se

The scholarship recipients of 2022, Simon Persson, Kayo Mpoyi and Gabriel Gabriel Garble, at the scholarship award in Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities at the Royal palace. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT