Charnwood Borough Council - Leading in Leicestershire

Every year Charnwood Borough Council supports and awards degree show students at the Loughborough University School of Art and Design (LUSAD). The work selected and awarded is purchased and placed in the council’s Art Collection which is made available to exhibit around the borough in public and community buildings.

This year the standard of work was very high but the panel managed to select five pieces of work from the degree show. The three students that have been selected by the borough’s Art Collection Panel and awarded the Annual Purchase Prize are fine artist Danny Raper, printed textile designer’s Jenny Smith and Daniel Heath. Both textile students exhibited their work at the recent New Designers Show in London.

Danny Raper said, “It’s fantastic that my work has been appreciated by others, and winning the Annual Purchase Prize has been a real confidence booster before heading off into the art-world, and a great way to end my degree at Loughborough.”

Daniel Heath Said, “I’m very proud to have been awarded The Annual Purchase Prize by Charnwood, it is a good feeling to be acknowledged by the authority in which I have studied for the past three years.”

The Council currently has 29 pieces of art work in the collection from textiles, ceramic, photography, paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture and illustration and feel strongly about supporting local art.

Cllr Jill Vincent the Chair of the Boroughs Art Collection panel said that, “The Annual Purchase prize is now in its eighth year and the Borough’s art collection is growing ever stronger. On this occasion we purchased the art with particular sites in the Council Chamber, the Town Hall and Loughborough Leisure Centre in mind. We are proud to be able to support artists and designers starting out in their careers from LUSAD, hopefully it will give the award winners the confidence to further their careers within art and design.”

Organisations interested in exhibiting any of the Charnwood Borough Art Collection where it will be accessible to the local community within a public building should contact the Arts Officer on 01509 268903 or email simone.maclaine@charnwood.gov.uk