Sovereign Art Prize is back for students

This art competition is for the island’s secondary school students and offers the chance to win cash prizes, exhibit their art both locally and internationally and sell prints of their work.

Each year more than 100 entries are received. These can cover any topic and be created using any 2D medium including collages and photography.

Students are often nominated by their school art departments, but with up to three entries allowed per person, they can also put forward work created at home. The September deadline enables artists to experiment and create entries during the summer holidays.

The work of 20 young artists will be shortlisted and taken on the Finalist Exhibition Tour this autumn.

This has become a familiar annual installation, popping up in prominent public venues such as the Guille-Alles Library and Beau Sejour as the year draws to a close.

For the first time this year the exhibition tour will also include a stint at Cooked at St James.

This year, for the first time, life-size, high-quality reproductions of the finalists’ artworks will be on sale alongside an auction of some of the original works. The proceeds are split equitably between the artist and the foundation, which both encourages and rewards the artists’ efforts while helping to support the prize and an art bursary scheme which the foundation also runs locally.

The Guernsey public can also vote for who wins one of the top prizes. There is also a Judges’ Award with a prize of £800 for the student and £2,000 for their school.

Other prizes include two Art for Guernsey Scholarship Awards and Lexicon vouchers for the highest scoring of the younger participants.

The top two winners are also put forward to compete in the SAF global competition, giving artists who have often not yet finished school the chance to see their artwork gain extensive international exposure.

Sovereign Guernsey competition coordinator Elizabeth Grafton wants as many students as possible to discover the challenges and rewards of creating their own art.

‘The SAF seeks to promote the therapeutic benefits of art to children and to recognise, support and promote contemporary art talent,’ she explained.

‘It might be the incentive a student needs to finish a piece off – or even to get an idea out of their head and onto paper.

‘We would like students to have a go, push themselves and discover what they can create.

‘Then, by putting their artworks forward into the Student Prize competition, they put themselves on the radar – our judges are on the lookout not only for the winners, but to identify young talent to encourage and help develop it.’

• For more information, visit www.artprize.gg.