THE winner of the Turner Prize, the oft controversial annual art award, is also its oldest to date: the artist Lubaina Himid.

The winner of the £25,000 prize was announced in Hull Minster, to mark Hull celebrating its status as UK City of Culture.

Himid, who is 63, won in a year when the other short listed artists included Hurvin Anderson, Andrea Buttner and the Glasgow School of Art-trained film maker Rosalind Nashashibi.

This year the organisers of the the prize, the Tate, lifted the age restriction on the prize, which had previously been set at 50.

Ms Himid was the oldest artist to be short listed for the prize in its history.

Her work included painting and an array of larger than life wooden cutout figures.

Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, said: "The jury applauded the four nominated artists for their socially engaged and visually imaginative work.

"They awarded the prize to Lubaina Himid for a trio of outstanding shows in Oxford, Bristol and Nottingham.

"They praised the artist for her uncompromising tackling of issues including colonial history and how racism persists today.

"They admire her expansive and exuberant approach to painting which combines satire and a sense of theatre.

"The jury also acknowledged her role as an influential curator and educator who continues to speak urgently to the moment."

The members of the Turner Prize 2017 jury are Dan Fox, writer and co-editor of Frieze; Martin Herbert, art critic; Mason Leaver-Yap, Walker Art Center’s Bentson Scholar of Moving Image and Associate Curator at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin; and Emily Pethick, Director of Showroom.

Lubaina Himid was born in 1954 in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

She studied Theatre Design at Wimbledon College of Art and an M.A in Cultural History at the Royal College of Art.

She is Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire.

She lives and works in Preston.