Aspiring artists and designers are invited to enter HIV charity National AIDS Trust’s inaugural Be Red Ribbon Inspired artwork competition and have their work judged by Sir Antony Gormley and Sandy Nairne CBE.

Launched today (31 July 2020), the competition offers a unique opportunity to create an inspiring piece of artwork incorporating the red ribbon, the international symbol of HIV awareness and support, while gaining valuable exposure and recognition. Sir Antony Gormley is a renowned sculptor who created Angel of the North and Sandy Nairne was a director of the National Portrait Gallery.

The winning artwork will feature on National AIDS Trust’s exclusive World AIDS Day 2020 tote bag. It will also be commissioned by Paintings in Hospitals and the winner will receive a prize of £500.

Deborah Gold, Chief Executive of National AIDS Trust said: “The red ribbon is the international symbol of HIV and AIDS and we are excited to see how people interpret this into artwork for our exciting new competition.

“We’re absolutely thrilled Sandy Nairne and Sir Antony Gormley are joining us to judge the entries with their wide-ranging expertise.  We hope this competition will help raise awareness of the significant advances made in HIV treatment and prevention in recent years. We celebrate living and thriving with HIV and art is an important way of people expressing themselves.”

Historian and curator Sandy Nairne CBE said: "I am delighted to support the National AIDS Trust’s 2020 artwork competition. It will help promote the important work the charity does while offering wider recognition for artists and designers. I look forward to seeing how people are inspired by the iconic red ribbon."

Artwork can be submitted in any format that can be displayed in a still image. Submissions that uniquely incorporate the red ribbon and represent an aspect of National AIDS Trust’s work are encouraged.

Alongside the top prize from Paintings in Hospitals, runners-up prizes have kindly been provided by Pop Up Paintings and Surface View.

Sandra Bruce-Gordon, Director of Paintings in Hospitals said: “Paintings in Hospitals is thrilled to support the National AIDS Trust's artwork competition for emerging artists. Like the red ribbon, art has the power to communicate beyond words. Art can uplift, inform, and empower people.

“We will be delighted to acquire the competition's winning artwork for the Paintings in Hospitals collection, which will see the artwork go on public display in care settings across the country, amplifying HIV awareness and support to patients and service users throughout the UK.”

Are you ready to take your artwork to the next level? Visit www.nat.org.uk/art for competition details and instructions on how to enter. You can also contact art@nat.org.uk.

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For more details or further comment, please contact Joe Lester, Senior Communications Officer, on press@nat.org.uk / 020 7814 6727 or 07384 390 624.

Notes to Editors

Full terms and conditions and details of the competition can be found at www.nat.org.uk/art.   

Images attached of the National AIDS Trust logo and accompanying Be Red Ribbon Inspired logo, and images of the judges Sandy Nairne and Sir Antony Gormley. Please credit Sandy Nairne’s photograph courtesy of Eamonn McCabe.

The judges:

Sandy Nairne CBE is a writer and curator based in London, and until 2015 was Director of the National Portrait Gallery. He has previously worked at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Arts Council and as one of two deputy directors at Tate. His publications include State of the Art, 1987, the anthology Thinking about Exhibitions, 1996, and more recently The 21st Century Portrait and Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners, 2011. He chaired the National Museum Directors’ Conference Working Group on Cultural Diversity, and is currently Chair of the Fabric Advisory Committee at St Paul’s Cathedral and the Art Advisory Group for Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres. He is a Trustee of the Courtauld Collection, and the National Trust, and a member of the Bank of England Banknote Character Advisory Committee.

Sir Antony Gormley is a British sculptor. His works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in Gateshead in the North of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool; and Event Horizon, a multi-part site installation which premiered in London in 2007, around Madison Square in New York City, in 2010, in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2012, and in Hong Kong in 2015–16. In 2008 The Daily Telegraph ranked Gormley number 4 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". (Biography from www.tate.org.uk)

About Paintings in Hospitals:

Paintings in Hospitals is the only national organisation of its kind. Founded in 1959, the charity uses visual art to inspire better health and wellbeing for patients and carers. Paintings in Hospitals is partnered with 180 health and social care organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, lending its art and facilitating creative workshops to transform and humanise clinical spaces. The Paintings in Hospitals collection holds over 3,900 artworks, including pieces by Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley, Maggi Hambling, Andy Warhol, Anish Kapoor, Howard Hodgkin, Helen Chadwick, Sonia Boyce, Alexander Calder, and more. In 2019 Paintings in Hospitals partnered with the National Gallery to bring a rare 17th-century masterpiece by Artemisia Gentileschi (worth £3.6 million) to a GP surgery in Yorkshire. The charity has also previously partnered with the V&A, Arts Council Collection, Wallace Collection, and Hayward Gallery. Paintings in Hospitals is a Registered Charity (1065963).

About National AIDS Trust:

National AIDS Trust is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to transforming society’s response to HIV. We provide fresh thinking, expertise and practical resources. We champion the rights of people living with HIV and campaign for change. Shaping attitudes. Challenging injustice. Changing lives. www.nat.org.uk