Holburne Portrait Award

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The Holburne Museum
Portrait Prize Award Evening
8 October 2010

On Friday evening 8 October the Holburne Museum will announce the winner of the Holburne Portrait Prize exhibition 2010. The winner will receive a £5,000 prize commission to paint a portrait for the Holburne’s permanent art collection.

Thirty three artists from sixty five in the south west were selected for the exhibition and this year’s winner will be decided by a distinguished panel which comprises the artist Rose Hilton, actress Stephanie Cole, and gallery owner Will Darby.

Painter Rose Hilton’s work is most closely associated with the St Ives School and her career spans almost six decades. Stephanie Cole is renowned for her roles from Tenko to Talking Heads and most recently Doc Martin. She is a passionate advocate for the arts and has been recognised for her work for Age Concern and mental health charity Rethink. Will Derby’s London gallery, Browse and Derby, has a long standing association with figurative painting.

The Holburne’s Director, Alexander Sturgis comments that, “Even with such a breadth of experience our panel of judges will really have their work cut out for them. The standard is extraordinarily high and it has been the Holburne’s pleasure to be able to showcase such talent from our region.”

In addition to the prize commission two nominal awards will also be given for the portraits that have received the most votes from the public during the exhibition. Over 1,000 people have participated in The People’s Prize which will be awarded in two categories. First, for the artist who has received the most votes cast by visitors to the gallery and second, to the artist who has received the most votes online with the Bath Chronicle. Voting closes at 3.30pm Friday 8 October.

The Award evening will be attended by the artists, their sitters, family and Friends and supporters of the Holburne Museum, including Savills, the exhibition sponsors. The public will have a chance to see the award-winning portraits at Chapel Row Gallery before the exhibition closes on Tuesday 12 October.

Everyone is invited to join the Holburne’s Big Draw, part of a national programme of events, a free drop-in workshop on Saturday 9 October from 11am to 4pm at Chapel Row Gallery. Artist Neil Bousfield will lead a workshop to create a flick book of moving images inspired by the portraits on show in flick books kindly provided by our local printers Emtone.

Ends

For further information please contact Katie Jenkins
Tel or email k.jenkins@bath.ac.uk

Notes

MARTIN GAYFORD ON LUCIAN FREUD IN ASSOCIATION WITH TOPPING & COMPANY
Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by Martin Gayford.
Lucian Freud, perhaps the world’s leading portrait painter, spent seven months painting the art critic Martin Gayford. His book describes the process and vividly conveys what it is like to be on the inside of the process of creating a painting by a great artist. Bookshop talk by Martin Gayford with an introduction by Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne Museum.
Thursday 14 October, 7.45pm reception for 8pm talk, Topping & Company, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LS Tel
Tickets £7 by telephone / £6 from the shop, including book voucher.

The Holburne Museum is currently closed for a development project of restoration and extension. Our Grade I listed home is being lovingly restored while a striking extension designed by Eric Parry faces Sydney Gardens behind the Museum. Our project is supported by The Heritage Lottery Fund and many other trusts, foundations and donors. We have £2million left to raise before we re-open our doors, free of charge, to the public in May 2011.

When we re-open the Holburne will house a collection of fine and decorative arts, built around the exquisite art collection of Sir William Holburne – assembled in 19th-century Bath. We hold a nationally significant collection of paintings, Renaissance bronzes and maiolica, silver, sculpture, furniture and porcelain, including important and popular works by Brueghel, Gainsborough and Stubbs. In recent years we have also established a national reputation for imaginative, scholarly and popular exhibitions.

The Holburne’s project transforms what we are able to offer all our visitors. It will make us fully accessible to all visitors for the first time, allow more of our collection to be displayed than ever before and enable us to stage far more ambitious exhibitions, offer a garden café, creative learning opportunities for all ages and a family friendly environment.

www.holburne.org/project

The Holburne Museum
Great Pulteney Street
Bath BA2 4DB

Published on: 06/10/2010

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