[Pictured: Cllr Kath Pratt, Richard Cross, Gillian Berry]

Haworth Art Gallery Open Exhibition launched on Saturday 1 October, showcasing work submitted by local artists and artisans. The exhibition is now open for people to visit, Wednesday to Sunday 12 noon to 4:00pm and is free entry until Sunday 18 December 2022.

Gillian Berry, Manager at Haworth Art Gallery, said: 

“The Open means so much to the gallery because it gives all artists, whether they are amateur or professional, the chance to display their work in one of our visitors’ favourite exhibitions. Most of the work on display is by local artists and features a wide variety of disciplines and media used. This gives our visitors the chance to engage with a variety of arts and crafts.

There are the most obvious artworks, portraits, landscapes and sculpture displayed alongside textiles, glass and ceramics. As an Arts and Crafts building it is important to us to include work which is classified as a craft.”

Councillor Kath Pratt, Portfolio Holder for Wellbeing, attended the event to present the awards to winning artists following a presentation from Richard Cross, a professional artist who judged the exhibition submissions.

Gillian Berry, added:

“I am delighted to have received such high-quality work for the Haworth Arts and Crafts Open exhibition this year and am glad that it was down to Richard Cross to judge the works selected for the exhibition. I know that Richard found this difficult and some of the reasons works didn’t get selected came down to the quality of the framing and the finish of the materials used. For anyone who was not selected Richard is giving a talk at the gallery on Post War British Art on Wednesday 12^th October at 2pm and will be available afterwards to give artists feedback on their work.”

Richard Cross said:

“It was a pleasure and a privilege to be asked to select and judge the Haworth Open Art Exhibition. What a beautiful venue, but a tough challenge to pick prize winners. After careful consideration, a dozen or so pieces emerged from the throng as having perhaps a slight edge in terms of quality and originality, that bit of extra ‘something’ that made them stand out. They became the commended works in the exhibition, and to me any one of these would have made a worthy winner.

“However, there were many other pictures that had wonderful qualities and that I enjoyed looking at very much. Congratulations to all artists in the exhibition on being selected and on playing a part in making it such a strong and successful show. The arts enrich life, and to make art is a positive and creative act, in a sense it is a form of sharing, of taking a feeling, an experience, or a scene, and sharing it with others through the act of making. In participating in this exhibition, you are contributing to the life and interest of the town by providing something for people to come and enjoy, so thank you and very well done to everyone involved.”

Steve Baldwin, who won first place, said: 

“It is an honour to have been awarded first prize in this year’s open call given the strong submissions selected and a privilege to exhibit my work in such a beautiful space.”