ANNA AIRY AWARD EXHIBITION 2009 Organised by the IPSWICH ART SOCIETY
The Award Fund was set up in 1965 in memory of Anna Airy (1882 - 1964) a distinguished painter whose work is represented in many major national collections. She was President of Ipswich Art Club (as the Ipswich Art Society was then called) for nineteen years. Anna Airy was also regarded as a brilliant and inspirational teacher by her students and, in the Art Club’s Annual Open Exhibitions, she always included a ‘student section’ to give young artists a chance to exhibit their work to the public in the setting of an art gallery. Since 1993, Ipswich Art Society has mounted independent exhibitions of students’ work. It has recently extended them to include a section for mature students.
Special congratulations to the award winners Velvet Stratford-Wright (The Anna Airy Award); Amy Sage (The Ipswich Art Society Most Promising Artist Award); Sarah Castle (The Ipswich Art Society Most Promising Mature Student Award); and, Polly Debenham and Yuk Ki Leung who received special commendations from the Ipswich Art Society.
In recent years the exhibition was held in the Forefront Gallery but due to renovations the exhibition was going to be cancelled. St Joseph’s College stepped in to support and Birkfield House was transformed into an elegant exhibition space for 107 exhibits. Work hung spanned across a huge variety of genre and styles.
For more information about this award please visit the following link: Ipswich Art Society
