Open 12 at the Alfred East Gallery

The evening of Thursday 3 May saw a special launch of Kettering Borough Council’s Alfred East Art Gallery’s annual Open art exhibition, Open 12. 

The event, attended by over 100 visitors, saw four artists receive awards for their work demonstrating artistic merit and originality. Visitors to the Gallery on Sheep Street in Kettering have until Saturday 9th June to vote for their favourite. 

All the works are for sale.

Artists working in all media across Northamptonshire and adjoining counties were invited to enter into this year’s Open 12 exhibition, showcasing the work of emerging and established artists. These items were then selected by a panel of local arts professionals crediting outstanding items. 

The four artists each received a cash award for their submissions kindly supported by Kettering Borough Council and the Friends of the Museum and Art Gallery who supported the award for best sporting theme.

Award of £350 for the painting, ‘Financial Gold Rush’ presented to Derek Brittan

Award of £250 for the painting, ‘Dicentra Hearts’ presented to Andree Fletcher

Award of £150 for the painting, ‘Evening Walk, Dorset’ presented to Brian Mutton

Award of £100 for the Mixed Media piece ‘Going for Gold’ presented to Heather

Wharam by Friends of the Museum and Art Gallery

Valerie Hitchman Head of Community Services said: “once again we have had an
overwhelming number of entries covering all media for this year’s Open 12. As
always the standard has been exceptionally high and our judging panel have had the
hard choice of selecting their winners but now we are offering visitors the chance to
cast their vote. The artist who receives the most votes will be offered an exhibiting
opportunity at the Alfred East Art Gallery in 2013.”

Kettering Borough Council invited all artists living or working in Northamptonshire or the adjacent counties to submit works of art to be considered by the independent exhibition selection panel of arts professionals: Chris Prout Artist and Winner of the Open 11 Public vote; Friedemann Schaber Senior Lecturer in Design at the University of Northampton; Katie Boyce Gallery Officer.

This year there were 216 works submitted to Open 12 at the Gallery and of these works, 87 have been selected for inclusion in the exhibition.   Artworks were chosen on their artistic merit, with the overall aim of producing an exhibition which highlights the quality and diversity of artistic practice in the region.
 
This panel of judges also chose the artist awards.