The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) has revived one of its most unique and storied traditions with the first new, hand-engraved reproduction of the Bram Stoker Medal for Imaginative Work in over 40 years.
On Thursday, 30 October 2025, Professor Penny Macbeth, Director and Principal of The Glasgow School of Art (GSA), presented the newly reissued Bram Stoker Medal for Imaginative Work to four recent graduates: Duncan Fleming Brown (2025), Militsa Miolenkova (2024), Xintong Guo (2023) and Amy Strzoda (2022). Duncan and Amy joined Professor Macbeth in person to receive their medals.
The 2025 edition marks the first time since the 1980s that the medal has been physically produced. Commissioned by Professor Macbeth, the new collection of ten medals was designed and hand-engraved by GSA graduate, silversmith, and jewellery designer and member of our silversmithing and jewellery staff team, Caius Bearder, who carefully recreated the medal based on the 1900 original design. The text on the reverse was hand-engraved by Harry Stokes, a Farringdon-based silversmith who specialises in script, heraldry, and illustration. Each of the new hand-engraved pieces honours both the School’s heritage and its enduring commitment to nurturing imagination and innovation.
Of this new set of ten, four are being awarded retrospectively to the recipients of the medal awarded during the tenure of Professor Penny Macbeth. One will be donated to GSA Archives and Collections, while the remaining editions will ensure a physical medal is awarded annually until 2030.
“Reviving the Bram Stoker Medal after four decades reconnects us to a remarkable part of our history and is a celebration of both our heritage and our future,” said Professor Penny Macbeth.
“The medal’s story reflects the spirit of creative courage that defines the GSA – a belief in imagination as a force for change. I am delighted that our graduates can once again receive this award as a tangible symbol of that legacy.”
The Bram Stoker Medal carries a fascinating link between the GSA and the celebrated author of Dracula. In 1896, Stoker visited the School and spoke of a vampire novel he was struggling to finish, then titled The Un-Dead. His friends Francis “Fra” Newbery, Director of the GSA (1885–1917), and his wife Jessie offered him the use of their cottage at Cruden Bay, where he completed the manuscript—later published as Dracula. To thank them, Stoker founded the medal in 1900, awarding it to GSA students whose work displayed exceptional imagination.
The last physical medals were produced in the 1980s under the tenure of the School’s director Prof. Tony Jones CBE (1980-1986), when recipients included acclaimed painter Steven Campbell (1982) and architect Gerry Grams (1983). Now, with this new edition of ten medals, covering the period 2022-2032, the Bram Stoker Medal returns to life—uniting over a century of creative heritage with the next generation of imaginative thinkers at The Glasgow School of Art.
For further information, please contact press@gsa.ac.uk
About The Glasgow School of Art (GSA)
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading independent university-level institutions for education and research in the visual creative disciplines. Our studio-based, specialist, practice-led teaching, learning and research draw talented individuals with a shared passion for visual culture and creative production from all over the world. Originally founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, the School’s history can be traced back to 1753 and the establishment of the Foulis Academy, delivering a European-style art education. Today, the GSA is an international community of over 3,500 students and staff across architecture, design, fine art, innovation and technology in our campuses in Glasgow and Altyre (in the Scottish Highlands), and a thriving Open Studio programme delivering non-degree provision to over 1,500 students annually.
