College teams up with world-renowned architectural artist to launch ‘My Town’ art competition

A brand new art competition is being launched to give school and college students the opportunity to show off their artistic talent and memory recall skills.

The ‘My Town’ art competition has been developed by East Sussex College and world-renowned architectural artist, Stephen Wiltshire, MBE. Budding artists will need to recreate an iconic landmark or building from their home town and recall all the details from memory, just as Stephen does to create his stunning city landscapes.

Young artists and illustrators from schools and college across East Sussex and the South East can enter the competition which will be launched on Friday 3rd April 2020. There are three age categories in which to enter, 11-13, 14-16, and 17-19, and young people have until Friday 19th June 2020 to submit their masterpieces.

The artwork will be judged by a panel of creative experts from the college, as well as Stephen, to decide a winner and runner up in each age group. The winning prizes will give six lucky students the opportunity to travel to London to meet Stephen at his gallery, enjoy some lunch and receive a signed copy of his book, See The Bigger Picture. The three winners from each category will receive a £100 gift voucher and the three runners up from each category will receive a £50 voucher.

Nigel Allyson Ryan, Creative Partnerships Coordinator at East Sussex College, said: “We’re delighted to be able to launch this exciting and unique competition to young people in the South East. It is something that we have been working on with Stephen for a little while, and we feel it has come at just the right time to help young people maintain their creative flow and provide a welcome distraction to the things that are going on in the world right now.

“Being creative, drawing, and painting are great ways to boost well-being and the beauty of this competition is that we can all observe government guidance to stay at home, gain inspiration online, and then draw from memory.”

Stephen Wiltshire said: “I wanted to do something a little different to celebrate my birthday this year and teaming up with the college to launch this unique competition seemed like the perfect thing. This is a great way for young people to develop their creativity over the next few weeks and for them to hopefully produce a piece of art that they can be proud of.”

Drawings should be produced in pen, pencil, or ink. The medium should be paper, a sheet no bigger than A2 (420mm x 594mm, 16.53 x 23.39inches).

Entries should be submitted by email to: nigel.ryan@escg.ac.uk by 5pm on Friday 19th June 2020. The entries will be judged during the week commencing 22nd June and the winners and runners up will be contacted and announced on the college website and social media on 29th June 2020.

For more information please visit our competition page.