Sharon attends prestigious BP Portrait Awards Exhibition launch at The Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery. Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens is the only English venue outside London to host the 2014 BP Portrait Award. The contest is now in its 35th year.
Sharon - along with fellow North-East MPs Chi Onwurah and Helen Goodman, and Sunderland Council Cabinet Member for Culture Cllr John Kelly from Washington North Ward - attends the prestigious BP Portrait Awards Exhibition launch in Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery. Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens is the only English venue outside London to host the 2014 BP Portrait Award. The contest is now in its 35th year.
Sharon is the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Art, Craft and Design in Education.
The group believes that art, craft and design education is essential to the economy and to the cultural, spiritual, creative and social well-being of all; that it empowers individuals, enabling them to engage with our rich visual and cultural heritage, express themselves and become visually literate and perceptive; and that access to high quality art, craft and design education is an entitlement for everyone.
Exhibition as reported in Sunderland Echo:
BP Portrait Award exhibition opens in Sunderland
Published on the 02 October
HEAD down to the Museum and Winter Gardens this weekend to check out one of the world’s most prestigious art competitions.
The city centre gallery has been chosen as the only venue outside of London to stage an exhibition of the BP Portrait Award. The display of more than 50 striking works arrives direct from the National Portrait Gallery in London which has forged strong links with the Winter Gardens.
Now in its 35th year, the BP Portrait Award this year received more than 2,300 entries from 71 different countries.
Fifty-five portraits, including the winning piece, Man with a Plaid Blanket by German artist Thomas Ganter, will go on display from Saturday until November 16.
It arrives on the back of previous celebrated displays, the Grayson Perry tapestries last year and this year’s V&A War Games exhibition.
Coun John Kelly, Sunderland City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Public Health, Wellness and Culture, said: “It’s great news for our city that Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens is the only venue in England outside of London to be chosen for the tour of these fantastic portraits. “The North East is, quite rightly, developing a reputation for creativity and culture. “We should take great pride in being selected to host such a wonderful exhibition and I would encourage everyone to go along and make the most of this opportunity to see great art here in our city.”
Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, said: “We are very pleased that the BP Portrait Award 2014 exhibition is visiting Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. “Visitors in the North East and beyond will be able to view 55 outstanding portraits by artists from all over the world.”
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http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/bp-portrait-award-2014/the-exhibition.php