Open [4] Awards

On Saturday 9 November we held the Awards Presentation for the Open [4] exhibition. Many of the artists and their guests attended, and it was a fantastic celebration of the artists and their work.

This is the fourth Open hosted by Salford Museum and Art Gallery (which included an online version in 2021) and we are delighted to see it go from strength to strength.

We were thrilled by the number of entries we received, with almost double the number of artists applying this year compared to 2022. There are 171 works in the exhibition, by 147 artists, making it a very difficult decision for the judges selecting the prize winners.

There were eight prizes on offer this year.

First Prize and two Runner Up prizes were selected and presented by David Hancock, artist and lecturer at the University of Salford and curator of The Omnipotence of Dream.

Throughout the exhibition we asked visitors to vote for their favourite work and the most popular work was awarded the People’s Choice. We also introduced the Staff Pick this year, inviting staff to nominate their favourite work.

These prizes were sponsored by the Museum from the artist entry fees.

We also awarded two sponsored prizes.

The Geoffrey Key Award was generously sponsored by Salford based artist Geoffrey Key, and we were delighted to welcome Geoffrey to select the winner and present his award.

The Pinc Prize was chosen by students from Pinc College. The prize was presented by Angie Ryan, Gallery Lead for the college and was sponsored by Pinc College and Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

Finally we had a Special Recognition award presented to an artist whose work was very popular with both the public and staff. It came second in the staff vote and was one of the most popular works with the public.

We were delighted to welcome City Mayor Paul Dennett to attend the event and announce the awards.