Inaugural competition at the National Gallery of Ireland
Following the outstanding success of the National Gallery of Ireland’s nationwide portrait prize, the Gallery is delighted to introduce a new competition, the Zurich Young Portrait Prize, launching in April 2019.
This competition will play an important role in the Gallery’s continued aim to foster and support creativity, originality and self-expression in children and young people while providing a new platform to showcase the exciting subject of portraiture.
The Zurich Young Portrait Prize is an inclusive art competition open to children and young people of all abilities, aged up to 18, from across the island of Ireland. The brief is simple: create a portrait of yourself or someone you know. Entry to the competition is digital and free of charge. Finalists in four categories (ages 6 and under, ages 7-11, ages 12-15 and ages 16-18) will be chosen by a panel of external judges and given the unique opportunity for their work to be professionally displayed at the National Gallery of Ireland, home to thousands of masterpieces. One work from each category selected by the judges as outstanding will additionally receive a bespoke art box containing personalised high quality art materials and a cash prize of €250.
Commenting, Head of Education at the National Gallery of Ireland Sinead Rice said, “We believe children and young people of all abilities have a right to access arts and culture, and that they have a valuable role to play in the changing landscape of museums. The National Gallery recognises their right to be seen and heard, and the Zurich Young Portrait Prize is designed entirely to support this, through showcasing new talent and inspiring new dialogue. This inclusive competition, encourages children and young people from all over the island of Ireland to artistically explore their sense of self, their understanding of others, and their place in the world around them. Portraiture is powerful, and enabling the next generation to shape who we see and how we see them, will advance the role children and young people play in this National Cultural Institution.”
Also commenting, Brian Hunt, Head of Regulatory Affairs at Zurich said, “It is wonderful to see The Zurich Young Portrait Prize come to fruition. This presents a unique opportunity for young people of all ages and abilities to display their talents in portraiture. This new competition marks an exciting addition to the already highly regarded Zurich Portrait Prize”.
The Zurich Young Portrait Prize is sponsored by Zurich.
About the Zurich Young Portrait Prize:
The inaugural Zurich Young Portrait Prize competition is open to submissions until 21 June 2019. Full details available here. The team can be contacted at [email protected].
About the Zurich Portrait Prize:
The Portrait Prize, open to artists aged 19 and over, runs for the sixth time in 2019. The aim of the Zurich Portrait Prize is to showcase and encourage interest in contemporary portraiture, and to raise the profile of the long-standing and constantly evolving National Portrait Collection at the National Gallery of Ireland. The shortlisted artists’ works will be exhibited in the Gallery from 5 October 2019 - 12 January 2020.
About Zurich:
Ireland is Zurich’s location of choice for its pan-European company Zurich Insurance plc (ZIP). Since 2009, ZIP has been headquartered in Dublin and is the main risk carrier for Zurich’s general insurance business in the EU. Patrick Manley is the CEO of Zurich Insurance plc. In terms of domestic business, Zurich focuses on two key business areas in Ireland – General Insurance and Life. In Ireland, Zurich employs approximately 1,100 people.