Art critic John Daly-Peoples notes that it was Spencer Bower's intention to "provide talented artists an opportunity to work for one year, free to pursue their own direction without the need to seek outside employment.
Final details for the charitable foundation were only finalised five days before the artist died in early July 1982.
Bower left all her art works to the foundation, and these have been gradually realised by the trustees to form the capital which entirely funds the award.
The award is directed at emerging painters and sculptors and bypasses well-known and established practitioners who may have already received recognition.
Indeed, rather than her legacy as a painter, the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Award has become the vehicle by which the artist is now best-known.