Following the announcement of the shortlisted artists at the beginning of the year, students had been eagerly waiting to find out who had won in each of the categories: Fine Art, Photography, Textiles & Graphics. After being delayed considerably due to changing Covid guidelines, the exhibition and awards ceremony finally took place, at the Bankside Hotel in London, on 23 September 2021 and we’re thrilled to announce this year’s winners (in order of appearance in the above photograph):

Textiles category: ‘Fragile Nature’ by Mai Yu, former student at Darwen Aldridge Community Academy

Photography category: ‘The skin of our lives’ by Lauren Terry, former student at Darwen Aldridge Community Academy

Fine Art category: ‘Liza Mahu’ by Hanna Terefe, student at Kensington Aldridge Academy 

Graphics category: ‘An End Of An Era’ by Rodney Stewart Cocha Guerra, former student at Dukes Aldridge Academy

Hanna Terefe, student at Kensington Aldridge Academy, was also announced as the overall competition winner this year and offered an internship with Artellite. Following the announcement, Hanna told us:

It was a completely new concept to me that other people enjoyed my work as I had never shared my art outside of the classroom before. I felt very proud of myself.

The Aldridge Junior Signature Prize inspires, informs and develops confidence in young people to raise their aspirations and explore how their talent could lead to a career in the arts or creative industry. You can find out more about the competition here: Aldridge Junior Signature Art Prize

You can view the winning artwork and the rest of the shortlisted pieces here: Aldridge Junior Signature Art Prize 2020/21 finalists