Three students from the Midlands have secured a place in the national final of Art of Nurture, a prestigious national art competition run by Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance.
The winners of the Midlands heats of the competition were announced at an exhibition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Abigail Stevens, 24, Hazel Castle, 24 and Carlton Smith, 26 from Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton will go head to head with students from across the UK in a bid to have their designs used in a high profile national advertising campaign for Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance.
Now in its fourth year, Art of Nurture encourages students to creatively express Commercial Finance’s core values of flexibility and support.
This year sees The Prince’s Trust, a life changing charity for disadvantaged young people, involved with the competition, along with Arts & Business, the national charity dedicated to encouraging new and sustainable arts and business relationships.
The Art of Nurture regional winners will have their work shown at the Saatchi Gallery, London at the national final on 13 April. Judged by top industry experts, the panel will include artist and illustrator Brian Grimwood who has worked on posters and advertising campaigns all over the world.
In addition to seeing their work used in a campaign, the three national winners will also be given the opportunity to take paid work placements.
The Midlands submissions were judged by a panel including Lara Ratnaraja, development director for Creative and Cultural Business Link West Midlands, Gavin Buckley, regional director for Arts & Business, Gloria Morningstar, group account director at Tangible Financial and local artist Stephen Earl Rogers, who has had his unique art exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery numerous times.
A limited edition boxed set of art by previous winners has been available to buy at the event and the last three national winners have donated their winning artwork for a silent auction to be held at the national final at the Saatchi Gallery, with all proceeds going to the Prince’s Charities.