Humber to the Wash exhibition opens
The third biennial open competition Humber to The Wash opened last week at the Barton upon Humber arts centre, The Ropewalk, with more than 150 people attending the preview evening.
And Exhibitions Officer Richard Hatfield is delighted with the growing popularity of the summer-long exhibition which attracts artists from East Yorkshire through to Norfolk.
“Each successive show has been an improvement upon the last and the 2011 show is no exception,” he said. “With more than 350 entries the selectors Hilary Angle and Letitia Thompson had a difficult task in reducing down to the 133 works which can be accommodated in the two galleries.
Richard added: “This year we received our highest number of submissions and sadly, because of space limitations, a lot of good work has been rejected because physically it was just not possible to fit everything in.”
So difficult was the selectors’ task of awarding prize for their favourite exhibit they decided to split the £400 prize between two entries – Jill Marshner’s Black Huts – Storm and 54°23’46.44”N by Stef Mitchell.
One of the selectors, Hilary Angle, admitted to being initially mesmerised by the huge number of submissions.
“But Letitia and I got into our stride and worked our way through every entry giving a thorough vetting to each one. It’s a really hard task and mostly we agreed on what to keep and what not to, bearing in mind the ultimate aim was a cohesive but varied show,” she said.
And Letitia was also amazed at the diversity and high standard of the submitted work.
“It really was a difficult task when selecting the work for exhibition which is a real celebration of the local artistic talent that is in the area,” she said.
The exhibition runs until Sunday, September 4, and The Ropewalk is open from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and on Sundays and Bank Holidays from 10am to 4pm.