Nominations come from arts professionals across the north, ranging from curators of public galleries and museums to directors of artist-led spaces and independent curators. They change every year to reflect the broad and varied practice of visual artists working across urban and rural communities.

Each nominator puts forward two artists to the selection panel drawn from the national visual arts sector. The panel is chaired by Nigel Walsh, Curator of Exhibitions at Leeds Art Gallery, who has casting vote and curates the exhibition of shortlisted artists. The selection panel changes every year.

The long listed artists for 2007 were:
AL and AL (Al Holmes + Al Taylor), Art Gene (Maddi Nicholson + Stuart Bastik), Brass Art (Anneke Pettican, Chara Lewis + Kristin Mojsiewicz), Eric Bainbridge, Catherine Bertola, Sian Bowen, Tim Brennan, Tessa Bunney, Graham Dolphin, Leo Fitzmaurice, Somewhere (Karen Guthrie + Nina Pope), Matthew Houlding, Dan Holdsworth, Duncan Higgins, Laura Lancaster, Dinu Li, Susie MacMurray, Owl Project (Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall, Steve Symons), Carole Romaya, Emma Rushton + Derek Tyman, Sarah Spanton, Linder Sterling, Carl von Weiler, Wolfgang Weileder

The nominators for 2007 were:

North East
Judith King, Independent Curator, Northumberland;
Paul Moss, Director, Workplace Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Alistair Robinson, Programme Director, Northern Gallery For Contemporary Art, Sunderland; Godfrey Worsdale, Director, MIMA, Middlesbrough

North West
Ceri Hand, Artistic Director, Metal Culture, Liverpool;
Kwong Lee, Director, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester;
Adam Sutherland, Independent Curator, Grizedale Arts, Cumbria; Fiona Venables, Curator, Tullie House Museum
and Gallery, Carlisle

Yorkshire
Anne Goodchild, Independent Curator, Sheffield; Timandra Gustafson, Executive Director, Axis, Leeds; Clare Lilley, Curator, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; Pippa Oldfield, Programme Manager, Impressions Gallery, Bradford