Member Article

St Modwen announces national finalists for photography competition

St. Modwen, the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, today announces the seven finalists for its national schools photography competition in celebration of the Company’s 30th anniversary.

Entitled ‘Making Places’, the competition was launched in April this year to secondary schools across England and Wales, asking GCSE art students to capture the theme of place making through the medium of photography.

Over 400 students across the UK took part in the competition which involved a series of individual schools workshops hosted by Stephen Burke, photographer for the Telegraph and the Financial Times and a member of award-winning, contemporary art organisation ‘WERK’*.

Between April and June, the workshops took place at individual St. Modwen development sites across the UK. They provided the students with insightful guidance on how to encapsulate the theme of place making and a sense of community through photography, in addition to offering careers advice in this field.

In July, each participating school submitted their best entry from which the seven finalists have now been selected with Notre Dame Catholic College leading the charge in Liverpool.

Commenting on the competition and Notre Dame Catholic College’s shortlisted entry, Stephen Burke says: “We have had an overwhelming response to the competition and a very high standard of entry. I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the workshops and engaging with the schools.

“Beth Allen’s entry from Notre Dame Catholic College was shortlisted because it captured the essence of place making, taken from her own perspective of her feet on the pedals of a JCB. The photograph shows the starting point from where the ‘Making Places’ approach starts through the creation of new built environments.

“The seven finalists should be congratulated on each their entries and we look forward to unveiling the winner on the 27 September.”

Steven Knowles, North West regional director for St Modwen, said: “Increasingly, we are building new schools and colleges as part of our UK-wide regeneration programme. To date we have delivered a new University campus, three colleges and three new schools and currently have 13 more such projects planned in our development pipeline.

“With a robust schools engagement programme already in place we wanted to use our 30th anniversary to link education with regeneration, art and urban design. Not only has the photography competition achieved this but it has also enabled us to capture what regeneration looks like in 2016. Furthermore, the participating students are growing up with live regeneration projects on their doorstep and the competition has helped them to explore and appreciate the history of their community whilst understanding what it is that gives it a true sense of place and identity”.

Beth’s entry focusses on St. Modwen’s Great Homer Street development in North Liverpool, aka Project Jennifer. Great Homer Street is currently being transformed through a £150 million regeneration scheme that will bring a supermarket, shops, homes and improved public spaces to the area. The transformation will have a continued positive economic, social and environmental impact, leaving behind a positive legacy that communities will be able to enjoy for years to come.

The winning photograph will be judged by a panel of industry leading judges and announced on 27 September at a ceremony hosted by the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community. The ceremony will follow a morning ‘place making workshop’ by Max Farrell at Sir Terry Farrell’s architectural practice in London.

The winning prize is state of the art camera and £3,000 towards the school’s art department.

For more information on St. Modwen’s 30th anniversary and the national schools competition, please visit http://www.stmodwen.co.uk/corporate-social-responsibility/30th-anniversary

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emily Hallinan .