Exhibition to double in size thanks to popularity
ARTISTIC entries to an open exhibition inspired by a town park have been of such a high standard that organisers are to double the amount to go on public display.
The Friends of Hollycroft Park are to stage an exhibition to celebrate the Hinckley green space in the Atkins Building on Lower Bond Street, which opens on September 24.
It is to feature a series of special new photographs of the park by Paul Hands from Hinckley Photographed and was also to include two winning artworks submitted in an open competition.
But judges, including Mr Hands and Friends members, say the standard of entries was so high that they are to add two other exceptional pieces to the display.
Mr Hands said: “The level of craftsmanship and artistic integrity was so high that we found it very difficult to choose the winner.”
In the end, he said, judges used the competition brief to help make the final call.
Winner of the high-calibre over-16s category was a textile collage called The Labrynth, inspired by one in the park, by Viv Middleton from Whitwick.
The two other pieces also chosen to go on display were an embroidered representation of a curved wall around a bench in the park, by Elizabeth Jarvis from Hinckley, and a textural painting called Hollycroft in Bloom by Joanne Stewart from Burbage, inspired by flowers in the park.
Winner of the under-16s category was 12-year-old Holly Spiller-Bigley from Hinckley, whose painting called Hollycroft Park includes the park’s art deco bandstand, its eye-catching globe sundial, its pavilion and a tree.
Mr Hands said: “We felt that whilst Viv’s The Labrynth was our winner, Elizabeth’s and Joanne’s artwork was so good, they had to be seen by other people.
“Holly’s artwork in the Under-16s was so on point with the theme of the competition that she won hands-down.”
As well as the artwork and Mr Hands’ photographs, the exhibition will feature work by Mr Hands’ wife Lisa, also from Hinckley Photographed, and a display of memorabilia and artefacts celebrating the park’s eight decades of history.