Deputy Lord Mayor rolls out red carpet for Sheffield's young artists

26th April 2022

The city’s creative talent of the future was invited to Sheffield Town Hall to receive personal praise from Deputy Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards, recently.

Prize winners from this year’s Young Artists competition - the UK’s largest annual art competition for school children – lined up with organisers and sponsors at a special reception.

Their work is about to take pride of place at this month's Sheffield Young Artists Exhibition which will be held at Norfolk Street’s Central United Reformed Church this Friday and Saturday, 29th and 30th of April.

The event – which has had a two-year absence due to COVID – will see up to 650 pieces of art on display.

The event, organised by Sheffield Abbeydale Rotary, invites entries from school children aged 5 to 18 from schools right across the city.

The exhibition weekend is the culmination of the Sheffield Young Artists programme. The competition first took place in 2005. 

The Lord Mayor of Sheffield will open the exhibition and present the awards on Friday, April 29th at 10am.

City-based Graysons Solicitors is the sponsor of the Sheffield Young Artists event.

Peter Clark, managing partner, said: “We are delighted to see the event finally happen after all this time. There is so much talent amongst the young people of Sheffield and it’s going to be wonderful to see so much of it going on display this weekend.”

Though the Sheffield Young Artists competition has continued over the past two years, COVID restrictions have meant the full exhibition has been unable to take place. Smaller displays took place at both Art in the Gardens and the Great Sheffield Art Show.

But it hasn’t all been doom and gloom for the event in lockdown. The success of Sheffield Young Artists has ended up being the inspiration for a similar event in Bochum, Germany, which takes place next month. Ken Marshall, Chris Jones and Steve Walker will represent Sheffield Abbeydale Rotary at the opening of the exhibition.

Ken Marshall, who organises Sheffield Young Artists on behalf of Sheffield Abbeydale Rotary, said: “Though we’ve had a very frustrating two years caused by COVID there have been two bits of very good news – the continued support of Graysons as our sponsor and spreading our influence to Germany! We have worked together with the Bochum Renaissance Rotary Club which has adopted our format and will be holding its first Young Artists exhibition in early May.”

Sheffield Young Artists exhibition runs from 10am until 7pm on Friday, April 29th and from 10am until 3pm on Saturday, April 30th. Entrance is £1 for adults and free for 18 years and under.

Graysons Solicitors, which originally formed in 1925, has a keen interest in local culture and has been the main sponsor of the city’s celebrated Art in the Gardens event for the past three years.

Graysons specialises in wills & lifetime planning, private wealth, probate & estate administration, property, family, personal injury, occupational illness and medical negligence. 

It is situated at Courtwood House, Silver Street Head, Sheffield S1 2DD.

More information from: www.graysons.co.uk