Anna Airy Award 2014

The Art & Photography Department have reason to be pleased as last year’s Y13 student, Miriam Trabold won the prestigious Ipswich Art Society Award at the Anna Airy Award ceremony 2014. This is the third year in a row Northgate have been lucky to win the accolade. The exhibition is organized by the society and hosted at the UCS Waterfront Gallery overlooking Neptune Quay. The long-established exhibition is renowned for showcasing the talents of young artists aged 16-20 from all around the county. Indeed, all the Northgate entries that were submitted were short-listed from a huge entry of student work from the Ipswich area and beyond.

The Ipswich Mayor (Cllr Bill Quinton) and the Mayoress were honorary guests and commented on the high level of work on show and in particular the technical skill and creativity displayed within our students’ work.

The Award, set up in 1965 in memory of Anna Airy, had more significance this year as it was the centenary year of the start of the Great War. To commemorate this there was an exhibition of Anna Airy’s running parallel, drawing wider attention to the artistic contribution of her work as an official war artist. This was a rare opportunity to view works that are usually to be found in many national collections including those of the British Museum, the V&A and the Imperial War Museum.

Miriam Trabold was awarded the prize for a large oil painting that she had been working on throughout her A Level coursework. The subject was our very own Steve Hawksley who was happy to sit and be photographed for the project. It proudly exhibits Steve in his natural habitat, his workshop amongst his tools and personal belongings and bares a real resemblance. Steve has been the subject of more than one student’s work as pupils really appreciate the lengths he goes to help realise some of their ambitious projects and for many years has been a real asset to the department.

Congratulations must also go to the other art students Andreaa Stanuta (Y12), Tallulah Smith (Y11), Eye Suriyanon (Y13) and Charlotte Simpson (Y13), whose work was awarded commendation certificates.  All the work looked stunning within the space and was admired by fellow students, family, teachers and artists of all ages. The open exhibition was well-attended and the work was on show to the public for a further two weeks.