The winners of the 2021 Maltings Art Prize were announced at a prize-giving ceremony at OVO at the Maltings Theatre on Wednesday 30th March. The event saw 140 guests, made up of finalists, parents and teachers attend this community inspired awards evening.
The art competition, with the theme ‘Nature in St Albans’, saw school pupils aged 4-18 years from 8 local schools compete for the chance to win a cash prize of £1,000 for their school Art Department and a £250 cash prize for the overall winner. The winning students from each of the groups were presented with trophies and all finalists received a medal.
The awards evening was hosted at OVO at the Maltings Theatre which has been a part of St Albans’ cultural scene for the past 30 years, building a rich heritage and providing a home for scores of live performances.
The competition saw over 600 entries by 8 local schools and 40 works were shortlisted by a panel of judges including: Phil Corrigan, Centre Manager of Maltings Shopping Centre, Clair Graham presenter at Radio Verulam and Ben Askem, local artist and owner of a working studio and gallery in the High Street, St Albans.
The awards evening was opened by Phil Corrigan of the Maltings and the winners were announced by Clair Graham. The finalists were presented with their well-deserved awards by Phil Corrigan and posed for photos with local photographer John Andrews.
AGE 7-10 YRS. Group 4 winner: Asa Pettit, St Columbas College
AGE 10-13 YRS. Group 3 winner: Selin Ozsoy, Maple Primary School
AGE 13-16 YRS. Group 2 winner: Katherine Kincaid, Sandringham School
AGE 16-18 YRS. Group 1 winner: Weronika Stelmaszuk, Nicholas Breakspear School
A special ‘Highly Commended’ Prize was awarded to Olivia Woods from Loreto College.
Katherine Kincaid’s use and application of colour and shape wowed the judges and earned her the place of Overall Winner with her stunning painting ‘Woodlands and Light’.
Katherine was delighted and full of smiles and parents and teachers looked on with pride as she received her trophy along with the £250 prize. Katherine attends Sandringham School and teachers stepped forward to accept the £1000 cheque on behalf of the school’s art department.
Phil Corrigan commented “I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in the competition, as you can imagine we had a very difficult time choosing the winners. The awards evening was fabulous, and it was great to see all our winners together”. Phil went on to say, “I hope this competition inspires students to think about art and it’s great to see such a variety of art and design in St Albans schools”.
Maltings Shopping Centre would like to thank children and teachers at our participating schools for their entries and support of this competition.
Participating Schools:
Sandringham School, Loreto College, Sauncey Wood Primary School, Maple School, Nicholas Breakspear School, , St Columba’s College Prep School, Wheatfields Junior School.