Award Presentation for The Open [3] exhibition

On Sunday 18th September we held the Award Presentation for the Open [3] exhibition.

Lots of people attended and it was a lovely way to celebrate the artists’ work and mark the end of the exhibition.

Although this is the third Open, it is only the second time we have been able to hold the exhibition in the museum, so we were really excited to be welcoming artists back and it was great to see such a wide variety of subjects and mediums from a range of ages and levels of experience. There were familiar names from previous years amongst the entries and also plenty of new artists taking part.

There were five prizes on offer this year:

Three have been sponsored by the Museum – First Prize, Second Prize and the People’s Choice. Amy Brunn, Exhibition Manager (currently on maternity leave who came back for the Open [3] Awards) alongside Lindsay Taylor, Art Curator, University of Salford Art Collection selected winners for First and Second, and throughout the exhibition we asked visitors to vote for their favourite work and the most popular work was awarded the People’s Choice.

We were also pleased to announce the Geoffrey Key Award this year. Geoffrey Key is a prolific artist based in Salford and many of his works are in Salford’s collection. His work can be seen in the current exhibition Exploring the Collection. Geoffrey very generously sponsored this award and selected the winner, and we were delighted that he was able to attend to present his award.

The Friends of Salford Museum also kindly sponsored a Friend’s Choice with a small committee selecting their favourite and Don Ranger (check surname), Chair of the Friends was there to present the award.

The prize winners were:

First Prize

Ben Ark
What’s Happening in this World?
Paint, ink, digital drawing, photographic elements and resin

Second Prize

Paulette Bansal
Tally I
Two-plate etching

People’s Choice

Charles Magee
Home Time, 4pm, Swinton
Blue biro on cartridge paper

Geoffrey Key Prize

Steven Ratcliffe
Fish, Chips, Peas
Paints and papers on board

Friend’s Choice

Jayne Pellington
Merchants Bridge
Reduction lino print

We hope that the Open continues to grow over the coming years. The next exhibition will be in 2024 so keep an eye on the website and social media for further information nearer the time.

The exhibition closed on Sunday 18 September but you can look back at the Open [2] online.