The Aldridge Junior Signature Art Prize was first launched by the Aldridge Foundation in 2019, in partnership with Artellite, one of the first online graduate art galleries, and sponsored by Callsign, a leading cyber security firm.

The 12 talented finalists will have their work judged by professionals from the art world and see their work professionally hung in a central London exhibition, alongside finalists of The Signature Art Prize.

Artellite’s Signature Art Prize was founded in 2007, and is the only award of its kind that aims to promote the work of artists in the emerging stages of their careers. Drawing attention to the unique perspective of students and recent graduates, it celebrates and identifies emerging artists’ ‘Signature Style’.

The Aldridge Junior Signature Art Prize was created to run alongside the main competition and is open exclusively to students we support across the Aldridge family of schools in inner London, the North West and on the South East coast. The categories are Fine Art, Graphics, Textiles, Film and Photography. This year we had an amazing 88 entries – over double the number from last year – and whittling it down to just 12 was tough.  

The finalists for this year’s prize are:

Fine art

  • Hannah Birch, Darwen Aldridge Community Academy
  • Mai Yu, Darwen Aldridge Community Academy
  • Hanna Tsehaynesh Astrid Terefe, Kensington Aldridge Academy

Graphics

  • Rachel Davey, Darwen Aldridge Enterprise Studio
  • Dwaine Pitt, Darwen Aldridge Enterprise Studio
  • Rodney Stewart Cocha Guerra, Dukes Aldridge Academy

Photography and film

  • Aedan Clarke, Darwen Aldridge Enterprise Studio
  • Lauren Terry, Darwen Aldridge Community Academy
  • Tom Jackson, Darwen Aldridge Enterprise Studio

Textiles

  • Hannah-Ivy Williams, Darwen Aldridge Community Academy
  • Tia Britcliffe, Darwen Aldridge Community Academy
  • Mai Yu, Darwen Aldridge Community Academy

You can see their incredible artwork collated in the Aldridge Signature Art Prize brochure (pdf).

As an artist, to have your piece being scrutinised and commented on so positively, was the best encouragement for me to make more – and better – pieces, to interest, inspire or hopefully resonate with people in the future. Personally, the Junior Signature Art Prize has changed me for the better, and it’s experiences like that which I’ll always cherish and look for in the future.

Salma, winner of the Junior Signature Art Prize Fine Art category 2019/20

Discovering and inspiring skills and talent

We want all young people to have the chance to discover their skills and the things they’re passionate about – and explore how they can take them forward into the world of work. We provide activities and experiences that will help young people uncover these skills and develop new ones, to gain confidence and be inspired. Creative arts is one of our key programme areas. We support creative arts from film to fine art – nurturing talent and helping create opportunities to get that talent noticed.