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Eight ARU students shortlisted for Batsford Prize

Published: 20 April 2023 at 12:58

Logo for the Batsford Prize

Children’s Book Illustration students nominated in three categories

Works created by eight MA Children’s Book Illustration students at Anglia Ruskin University’s (ARU) Cambridge School of Art have been shortlisted for the Batsford Prize 2023.

Out of 28 shortlisted entries across four categories — Fine Art, Illustration, Children’s Illustration and Applied Arts & Textiles — the eight ARU postgraduate students have been recognised in three categories.

The prestigious annual awards, open to any UK-based undergraduate or postgraduate student, have this year focused on the theme ‘At Peace’, with four top prizes and one overall winner set to be revealed in May.

Five ARU students have been shortlisted in this year’s Children’s Illustration category. Forest Xiao’s How To Catch An Idea, Justin Worsley’s One Fine Day, Fatima Ordinola Guerra’s Our Love, Carol Law’s The Chair and the Snooze and Katie May’s The Postman have all been selected as among the seven best examples of student illustration for young audiences in 2023.

In the Fine Art category, Xinyi Bi has been shortlisted for multi-layered pop-up book From the Secret Garden, while the Illustration strand has seen two nods for ARU students. Naomi Tipping has been shortlisted for Crusts, a sequence about a man escaping the drudgery of day-to-day life, while Laura K Sayers has been recognised for The Simmer Dim Series of miniature hand-cut paper illustrations inspired by traditional Shetlandic words.

As the shortlist was announced, Shelley Ann Jackson, Course Leader for MA Children’s Book Illustration at ARU, said:

“It means so much for our students to be selected for the Batsford Prize, as it is recognition of their hard work and the skills they’ve built as artists on the MA course.”

 

The winners for each of the four Batsford 2023 categories will be chosen by a judging panel of creative industries professionals Gemma Doyle, Neil Dunnicliffe, Frida Green, Hattie Grylls, Vaughan Grylls, Anne Kelly and Sam Peet.

The top prize in each classification brings with it a £300 cash prize and £100 worth of books, with a further £300 being awarded to an overall winner.