The Holburne Portrait Prize 2010

Home, Press
The Holburne Portrait Prize, the Museum’s biennial competition for portrait artists in the south west, has become one of the regions most prestigious awards for painting. This year’s exhibition, the Holburne’s fifth, has been narrowed down from over sixty entries.Artists have entered from Wiltshire to Cornwall, many of them for the first time, making the exhibition an inspiring showcase for both established and new talent. The prize winner will receive a commission of £5,000 to paint a portrait for the Holburne’s permanent art collection.

While the Holburne prepares to open a refurbished and extended Museum in May 2011, this year’s Portrait Prize exhibition will be hosted once again at Chapel Row Gallery in the heart of Bath.

The Holburne Portrait Prize Exhibition
18 September to 12 October
Chapel Row Gallery, 6 Chapel Row, Off Queen Square, Bath BA1 1HN
Open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm / Sunday 12noon to 4pm
Admission FREE
www.holburne.org

The Portrait Prize is sponsored by Savills and supported by the Friends of the Holburne Museum, and Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.

For further information please contact:
Katie Jenkins, The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath, BA2 4DB
Tel or email k.jenkins@bath.ac.uk

EXHIBITION EVENTS

DRAWING THE DEVELOPMENT
Alexander Sturgis in conversation with Karen Wallis
The Holburne’s Director discusses the challenges of capturing the spirit of the Museum’s progress, the building and the people, with Karen who has been the Holburne’s artist in residence since 2008.
Thursday 23 September, doors open 6pm for 6.30pm start, tickets £5 in advance from Tel on the door at Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, Queen Square, Bath.

THE HOLBURNE’S BIG DRAW
FREE family drop-in celebrating the Portrait Prize exhibition.
Join us in the gallery to create your own moving image in a flick book, inspired by the portraits on show, with artist Neil Bousfield.
Saturday 9 October 11am to 4pm, Chapel Row Gallery, off Queen Square, Bath
Tel

MARTIN GAYFORD ON LUCIAN FREUD IN ASSOCIATION WITH TOPPING & COMPANY
Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by Martin Gayford.
Lucian Freud, perhaps the world’s leading portrait painter, spent seven months painting the art critic Martin Gayford. His book describes the process and vividly conveys what it is like to be on the inside of the process of creating a painting by a great artist. Bookshop talk by Martin Gayford with an introduction by Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne Museum.
Thursday 14 October, 7.45pm reception for 8pm talk, Topping & Company, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LS Tel
Tickets £7 by telephone / £6 from the shop, including book voucher.

Notes

The Holburne Museum is currently closed for a development project of restoration and extension. Our Grade I listed home is being lovingly restored while a striking extension designed by Eric Parry faces Sydney Gardens behind the Museum. Our project is supported by The Heritage Lottery Fund and many other trusts, foundations and donors. We have raised £11.5 million and have £2.3million left to raise before we re-open our doors free of charge to the public in May 2011.

When we re-open the Holburne will house a collection of fine and decorative arts, built around the exquisite art collection of Sir William Holburne – assembled in 19th-century Bath. We hold a nationally significant collection of paintings, Renaissance bronzes and maiolica, silver, sculpture, furniture and porcelain, including important and popular works by Brueghel, Gainsborough and Stubbs. In recent years we have also established a national reputation for imaginative, scholarly and popular exhibitions.

The Holburne’s project transforms what we are able to offer all our visitors. It will make us fully accessible to all visitors for the first time, allow more of our collection to be displayed than ever before and enable us to stage far more ambitious exhibitions, offer a garden café, creative learning opportunities for all ages and a family friendly environment.

www.holburne.org/project

Published on: 12/07/2010