Winning School Art On Display In Hamilton
http://www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/photogallery.aspx (pictures available for download of winning entry and display)

Hamilton Boys High School student Hamish Carter tonight (announced at 6pm) took out the inaugural Waikato Transfusion secondary schools' painting competition.

His work will hang for a month in Waikato Museum at the Transfusion exhibition with 113 other entries from Waikato student artists. The students donated their artworks as part of the competition to Waikato District Health Board to hang in its five hospitals.

Hamish's winning work will be inside level one of the new entry building while the others already have walls waiting for them in one of our Health Waikato hospitals in Hamilton, Thames, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui or Tokoroa.

Organiser James Sutherland, head of art at Hamilton Boys' High School, said there were some "wonderful pieces of work" entered.

"They're all entirely appropriate and will look good on the hospitals' walls."

Health Waikato chief operating officer Jan Adams, who presented the awards at Waikato Museum, said the quality of the art was outstanding.

"Influencing the lives of others for the better, is part of what being an artist is all about.

"As clinicians we know the impact art has on people, particularly those who may be ill or recovering in our hospitals. What's we often don't appreciate is that many people visiting our hospitals are under stress or concerned for their loved ones and sometimes a piece of work from a young artist lifts their spirits.

"I know the student art that hangs in Waikato Hospital already provides a tonic for the 4500 staff who work here. We also have more than 316,000 outpatient visitors every year, 80,000 attendances to the emergency department and 68,000 admissions. On any day about 5300 people visit Waikato Hospital," said Mrs Adams.

"That's quite an audience for these talented young artists."

The competition is an extension of a five-year collaboration between Waikato DHB and Hamilton Boys' High School. Mr Sutherland came up with the idea of getting his
students to donate their work to Waikato Hospital five years ago, when his son was born there.

More than 80 student works already hang in Waikato Hospital as part of an initiative aimed at showing the power of art and the power of an artist to influence the lives of others for the better.

This year the opportunity opened up to involve all other secondary schools in the Waikato DHB region.

By donating artwork to Waikato DHB young artists are assured of public appreciation of their work in hospitals, and be doubly sure that their art will make a real and lasting impact on the lives of others.

The competition was open to Year 12 and 13 painting students. Students had the freedom of painting whatever they liked provided they did not produce artworks likely to offend the wide range of people who attend the hospital.

Further details: http://www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/events/pageid/2145843389/Schools_painting_competition

Prizes were in the form of art materials and related merchandise from the following:
* National Art Supplies
* The Warehouse Stationery, Ulster St.
* The Framing Workshop
* Waikato District Health Board
* Hamilton Boys' High School
* PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Results:

First prize Wintec one year's fees:
Hamish Carter, Hamilton Boys' High School

Other prizes:
PricewaterhouseCoopers prizes - art vouchers

Georgi Rosendaal, Sacred Heart Girls' College
Wiremu Mackie, Hamilton Boys' High School
Kate Wardlaw, Sacred Heart Girls' College

National Art Supplies prizes - art materials

Tomairangi Tapu, Te Awamutu College
Elisabeth Stevenson, Hamilton Christian School
Kendall Watt, Sacred Heart Girls' College
Neihana Rua, Hamilton's Fraser High School
Schools' prize: Sacred Heart Girls' College

Warehouse Stationery prize
Billy Zhou, Hamilton's Fraser High School

School Supplies Prizes
Salome Theron, Hamilton Christian School
Amy Rutten, Sacred Heart Girls' College

The Framing Workshop Prize
Kristina Fransen, Sacred Heart Girls' College

Hamilton Boys' High School prize of art materials
Simeon Teem, Hamilton Boys' High School

ENDS