Bournemouth & Poole College is delighted to announce the winners of the 2021 Dorset Art Prize.

The winners of the Dorset Art Prize 2021 were announced in a virtual awards ceremony on The College’s website.

The Dorset Art Prize was established by the College in 2014, with the support of Dorset Community Foundation Trust. The key objective of the Dorset Art Prize is to actively engage with all aspects of the community through encouraging and helping to create a broader, more inclusive vision for art locally.

The theme for this year’s Dorset Art Prize was ‘Narrative’. Entrants were encouraged to interpret and explore this theme in broad and figurative ways, as well as more literal considerations.

Diane Grannell, Principal of Bournemouth & Poole College, said, “The Dorset Art Prize become an event many look forward to each year. It’s a pleasure to hear how it has become such a staple event after the last eight years of successful competitions.”

“Every year I am surprised by the number of entries and the talent shown in each and every entry. This year, with the addition of the school awards, I am more pleased than ever at the sheer quality of the submissions received. The Dorset Art Prize is a fantastic way of bringing the undiscovered young artists of Dorset into the limelight and providing a platform for them to succeed.”

“I’d like to congratulate our award winners this year and thank everyone who took the time and effort to participate in the competition this year. We were overwhelmed with entries and I can only imagine how hard it was to make the final decision for the judges.”

Primary School category winner, Malmesbury Park Primary Academy, were incredibly pleased to have won for the first time. Roxanne McPherson, Art Lead at the school, said, “We place immense importance in art in the curriculum at Malmesbury Park, and being recognised for the talent of children at our school is fantastic. The children really enjoyed putting the art work together and the whole school celebrated their success. The achievement itself is great, but the prize money will also have a real impact on our art budget this year. We’re already planning our entry for next year’s competition too!” 

This year, the esteemed panel of judges were Michael Spender, Head of Culture at BCP Council; Rebecca Rossiter, Museum Manager for Poole Museums; Sibyl Fine King, Director of the Fine Family Foundation, Jacqueline Hurley, widely regarded as the country’s foremost Remembrance artist; and Tony Worobiec, and established Fine Art photographer and author.

The winners of this year’s Dorset Art Prizes are as follows:

Category: Years 10 and 11

1st: Ella Stephens

2nd: James McMillan

3rd: Kye Preston

Category: Years 12 and 13

1st: Lucy Hannah Kendall

2nd: Sarah-Jane Brown

3rd: Sophie Hackman

Category: 19+

1st: Danny Byrne

2nd: Kathryn Whitemore

3rd: Xin Wen

Category: Primary School

Winner: Malmesbury Park Primary Academy

Category: Years 7 – 9

Winner: Parkstone Grammar School