This year's Open exhibition is being organised in partnership with De Montfort University. For the first time in its 26 years, the exhibition will be held at Newarke Houses Museum where it will launch the museum’s new Garden Galleries.

The annual Open exhibition presents an exciting opportunity for young, emerging and established artists to showcase their creative talents. The exhibition features a range of artists including established, recent graduates and first time exhibiting artists.

We welcome applications from artists across the region and are delighted to once again also host the Youth Category, open to ages 11 – 15 and 16 – 19 years, all competing for a range of artist’s prizes.

The ever popular and diverse Open exhibition presents a stunning array of artworks and contemporary craft by artists living in Leicester, Leicestershire, Rutland, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire or Northamptonshire.

The exhibition is open to practitioners across a wide selection of different art forms including painting, photography, illustration, sculpture, textiles and ceramics.

Works in the exhibition are available for sale, providing an ideal opportunity for visitors to start your own art collection and provide invaluable support to local artists.

Artist Prizes

Artists featured in the exhibition have the chance to win a variety of prizes including the £1000 Attenborough Prize. The Attenborough Prize 2014 was awarded to Oliver Marc Thomas Leger.

This year will also see the award of the new Trevor Thomas Prize which has been named in honour of the former director of Leicester museums who established the city’s world-famous German Expression collection in the 1940s.

We are grateful to our sponsors for their support of the Open exhibition and presenting prizes to their chosen artists. This year's sponsors include:

Wilson Browne Solicitors, Leicester LGBT Centre, Art House, City of Leicester Museums Trust, De Montfort Hall, Embrace Arts, Innersmile Education, John E. Wright, King Richard III Visitor Centre, LCB Depot, Leicester City Council Building Schools For The Future, Leicester Print Workshop, Makers Yard, Phoenix Arts, Soft Touch Arts, The Mighty Creatives, The Spark Arts For Children, Two Queens.

The range of exciting prizes include exhibition opportunities, training courses and prizes specifically for our Youth Category to support young aspiring artists.