Picturing the new Ashmolean
05 Feb 08
The winners of the Picturing the New Ashmolean Children’s Art Competition were announced at a special awards ceremony and launch of the new graphics to feature on the back of two Oxford Bus Company buses on Sunday 27 January.
The competition received a remarkable response with over 450 entries from children across Oxfordshire, the neighbouring counties, London and the USA. The panel of judges short listed 25 pictures and nominated the first, second and thrird prize-winners from three age groups: 4-7, 8-11, 12-16.
The judges were Christopher Brown, Director of the Ashmolean; Korky Paul, Artist and Children’s Book Illustrator; Louisa Weeks, Director and General Manager, the Oxford Bus Company; Janet Tomlinson, director of Children, Young People and Families and Oxfordshire County Council; Anthony Nagie, Construction Manager for HBG and Angela Palmer, Artist.
Christopher Brown, Director of the Ashmolean said: ‘Choosing the winning artwork from such as impressive number of imaginative and well-designed pictures was a challenging experience! We are delighted with the results and thanks to the competition’s lead sponsor, the Oxford Bus Company, the first-prize winners’ artwork will feature on 60 internal display panels.’
An exhibition of the pictures by the winners and runner up will be on public display from 27 January to 24 March in the Ashmolean Café and Café Lobby and online. At the awards ceremony the winners were presented with a range of prizes from laptop computers (sponsored by HBG Ltd) to a selection of books (sponsored by Oxford University Press)), gift vouchers from the Ashmolean shop and tea in the café.
Picturing the new Ashmolean has given young artists a unique opportunity to create and publicly exhibit their vision of the new Museum. The competition challenged children between the ages of four and 16 to create a bold and eye-catching image of visitors enjoying the new Ashmolean in 2009, their favourite object on display in one of the new galleries, or even the builders at work on the re-development.
During the competition a series of hard hat visits, gallery tours and workshops were organised to inspire and involve children in the Ashmolean’s major redevelopment. School groups totalling more than 180 children and six local schools joined HBG Consortium on the Museum’s viewing platform to sketch the builders and machinery at work on the new extension. As part of the Big Draw, 75 children took part in workshops led by Korky Paul, illustrator of the Oxford University Press Winnie the Witch series, where they illustrated their vision of the new Ashmolean.