More than 50 pieces of artwork transformed the Shaw Gallery this summer as the annual Trinity School Open Art Awards celebrated the creativity of students, staff, families and alumni, showcasing the vibrant creative arts culture at Trinity School.
Open to the whole Trinity community, the competition encourages creativity beyond the classroom, inviting entrants to create a piece in any medium with complete creative freedom. This year’s exhibition featured an extraordinary variety of work, from paintings, photography and illustration to textiles, embroidery, crochet, origami, sculpture, poetry and mixed media. The exhibition reflected the breadth of artistic opportunities available at Trinity, with students exploring their own interests and developing individual styles alongside their work in the classroom.
Among the many standout entries, First Year Art Scholar Alex was named the overall winner for his striking mixed media portrait of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
Created across nine individual panels, the portrait combines acrylic paint, charcoal, pastels, collage and coloured pencil, with each section exploring a different artistic style.
Alex explained, “I usually do things on A4, so I wanted to do something bigger… I thought I could put some A4 pieces together.”
He added, “I thought it could be interesting to allocate a different colour theme or style to every square. I also noticed afterwards that the three on the diagonal are non-naturalistic colours, these three are monochrome, and the ones around the centre are naturalistic. That was unplanned.”
Reflecting on winning the competition, Alex said, “I was quite surprised actually. There were lots of good things here, so I wasn’t sure if I’d win. I’m really happy. I won a voucher for Tate, so I’ll probably go with my parents over the summer.””
Runner-up Micah, in Third Year, was recognised for his beautiful photographic study of spring flowers in bloom. He said, “These are pictures from when I walked down my road and took photographs of neighbours’ plants and flowers. It was just one walk.”
He added, “The pictures come to me. I find a nice flower and different ways to capture it. I was really surprised because there were so many great entries, but I’m really pleased.”
This year’s Staff Award went to Librarian Mx Peers for two deeply personal pieces, a rainbow crochet blanket, Waste not (my love), and an original poem, The Lesson.
“My two pieces came very much from the heart,” they said. “The blanket became a piece celebrating eking out something useful that will keep you warm and happy from the scraps and margins of more traditional pieces.”
Reflecting on the exhibition, Mx Peers added, “I love the Open Art Awards for their fantastic ability for the whole school community to showcase the journeys that they go on, whether of technical skill or deeper meaning. It was wonderful to see everyone’s fantastic pieces of artwork on display, and I’m so excited and grateful to have been chosen as the Staff Winner.”
Congratulations to everyone who entered and helped make this year’s exhibition such a vibrant celebration of creativity across the Trinity community.
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