Entries are now being sought for the popular annual Harrogate Open Exhibition, to be held at the town’s Mercer Art Gallery In June.
The Harrogate Open, the biggest of its kind in Yorkshire, offers a chance for people to have their work shown in the prestigious Mercer Art Gallery and has a prize fund of £1,200 courtesy of the Friends of the Mercer Art Gallery.
The exhibition offers an opportunity for artists to sell their work, and an invitation to a Private View at the Mercer Art Gallery.
Entrants might be at the start of their artistic journey and doing A Level Art at college, or have been painting for decades; whoever they are, the Mercer Art Gallery is encouraging all local artists not to miss out on taking part in The Harrogate Open.
There’s a top prize of £500, a runner up prize £250, and 6 highly commended awards of £75. The exhibition also awards £100 to the winner of the People’s Prize, which is voted for by visitors to the gallery.
The selectors for entrants into this year’s exhibition will be Yorkshire artists Tom Wood and Jake Attree, and Jane Sellars, Harrogate’s Curator of Cultural Services.
Jane Sellars said: We are delighted to have two such distinguished artists as our selectors for 2017, both of whom are great supporters of the Mercer and have exhibited here regularly.
Tom is an outstanding portrait painter who last year worked with the Mercer and Northern Ballet to put on an unforgettable exhibition and performance at the gallery. Jake is known especially for his remarkable drawings and paintings of York, the city of his birth, and in 2014 he created new work inspired by the Tour de France just for us.
We are really looking forward to working with them on the Harrogate Open 2017.
Entry forms for the Harrogate Open 2017 are available now to download at www.harrogate.gov.uk/mercerartgallery or you can pick one up from the desk at the Mercer Art Gallery.
The submission dates, when artists are invited to deliver their work to the Mercer, are Wednesday 7 to Sunday 11 June 2017.
There is an entry fee of £8 per work submitted; a concessionary charge of £6 per work submitted for over 65s, 16 to 18-year-olds, full-time students and the unwaged.
A maximum of three works per person can be entered into the exhibition.
The Harrogate Open 2017 will be on show at the Mercer Art Gallery from 17 June to 3 September 2017.
