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Prints with a Flourish go on show at Woodend Gallery for award exhibition

Measuring up: Martyn Lucas, exhibitions co-ordinator for the West Yorkshire Print Workshop, finishes hanging work for Flourish at Scarborough’s Woodend Gallery. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

FLOURISH, a celebration of printmaking, is on show at Scarborough’s Woodend Gallery until January 31 2021.

Established by Huddersfield’s West Yorkshire Print Workshop in 2009 to champion printmakers working throughout Yorkshire, Flourish now embraces work from across the UK.

Artists have been selected through open submission for an exhibition first shown at Huddersfield Art Gallery and now transferred to the East Coast.

Flourish brings together prints made by artists shortlisted for this year’s Flourish Award, selected by an independent panel of judges comprising Stephen Snoddy, artist and director of New Art Gallery, Walsall, Bronwen Sleigh, artist and printmaker, and Grant Scanlan, Huddersfield Museums manager.

Forming, by Nick Loaring

Their selection presents a diverse, imaginative group of 13 printmakers. The 2020 award winner will receive a two-week residency at West Yorkshire Print Workshop and the chance to hold a solo print exhibition at Huddersfield Art Gallery in 2022. 

Visitors to Flourish are invited to select their own favourite for the People’s Choice Award, to be announced at the end of the exhibition tour. 

Shortlisted artists for this year’s award arePaulette Bansal; Suzanne Bethell; Louisa Boyd; Tony Carlton; Louise Garman; Pam Grimmond, from Markington, near Harrogate; Ian Irvine; Nick Loaring; Lucie MacGregor; Flora McLachlan; Lucy May Schofield; Claire Willberg and Susan Wright.

Martyn Lucas, exhibitions coordinator at West Yorkshire Print Workshop, says: “In these unprecedented times with particular challenges for the arts and artists, West Yorkshire Print Workshop is delighted to be able to present a top-quality exhibition that people can visit in person.”

1999-2019, by Lucy May Schofield

Simon Hedges, Scarborough Museums Trust’s head of curation, exhibitions and collections, says: “Flourish is the first exhibition in our new programme in the newly configured Woodend Gallery.

“We have a longstanding association with printed artworks: our collections contain a substantial print archive, including biannual depositions from the Printmakers Council. We are keen to develop further projects with WYPW; Flourish will be the first of many.”

The Flourish Award presents an insight into printmaking nationwide and the changing panel of selectors ensures each exhibition contrasts with the previous year. At each show, an intriguing mix of highly skilled traditional printmaking stands side by side with more experimental, unconventional work, pushing the boundaries of scale and medium.

Previous judges have included artists Anne Desmet, Norman Ackroyd, Katherine Jones and Tracy Hill. Among the past prize winners are Sumi Perera, Neil Bousfield, Liz K Miller, Amy-Jane Blackhall and 2019 winner Hazel Roberts.

Prints on display for the Flourish exhibition at the Woodend Gallery, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew.

Entry to Woodend Gallery, in The Crescent, Scarborough, is free; opening hours are 9am to 5pm, Mondays to Fridays, and 10am to 4pm, Saturdays and Sundays.

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Scarborough: the poster magnet to penguins, courting couples and tonic seekers in nostalgic exhibition

Penguins at Scarborough? Anything is possible in a tourism poster

VINTAGE posters from a golden age of travel and tourism will go on display at Woodend, The Crescent, Scarborough, on Saturday.

Dating from the 1910s to the 1960s, the posters in Scarborough: A Day At The Seaside were issued by the-then Scarborough Corporation’s tourism department and by rail companies operating in the area.

Just the tonic: taking a holiday at Scarborough

On show from the coming weekend to April 26, they will include such nostalgic images as a family of penguins seeking shade under a parasol on Scarborough’s South Bay beach, alongside other bright and idyllic scenes from a bygone era.

The prints are all taken from the 200-plus original posters held in the Scarborough Collections, under the care of Scarborough Museums Trust.

Scarborough Open Air Theatre…as it was in 1938

Andrew Clay, the trust’s chief executive, says: “This will be a vibrant and colourful exhibition recalling an age when travelling by train for a holiday at the seaside was the height of sophistication.”

Limited-edition prints of the posters on display will be available to buy, all at the actual size.

Scarborough: the essence of coastal sophistication for courting couples in 1932

Woodend is open Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 5pm, and Saturdays and Sundays, 10am to 4pm. Entry is free.