Top art student wins Transfusion art competition

Hamilton Boys High School student Simon Blanchett won the Waikato DHB-supported Transfusion art competition in Hamilton tonight and received the top prize of a year’s free tuition at Wintec.

More than 150 year 12 and 13 painting students from around the Waikato entered the competition. The winning pieces are on display at Waikato Museum for a month and then hung in Waikato Hospital so the young artists can be assured of public appreciation of their work and be doubly sure that their art will make a real and lasting impact on the lives of others.

The Wintec scholarship allows for one year’s free tuition for a first year student enrolling fulltime in an undergraduate Media Arts programme.

Health Waikato chief operating officer Jan Adams said Transfusion was about the power of art and the power of the artist to influence the lives of others for the better.

The judges were: Tim Croucher (Wintec), Public Art Panel Chair Dr Carole Shepheard, and Alison Ewing (Hamilton Arts consultant).

They awarded 12 prizes in the annual Transfusion schools' painting competition to students from a range of schools from around the Waikato.

Organiser, Hamilton Boys' High School's head of art, James Sutherland, said that the judges were faced with some tough decisions this year.

“They were particularly impressed by the range of styles and approaches taken by the students, noting also that the overall standard of entries had risen."

Twenty-three pieces from the last two years are on show in the link corridor at Waikato Hospital (area between the car park building and level one of the hospital), including the 2009 and 2010 winning pieces by Hillcrest High School’s Julia King, now studying at Wintec, and Hamish Carter from Hamilton Boys’ High School, who is studying fine arts in Auckland..
Hamilton Boys’ High School established the competition in 2004 and decided with then Waikato DHB non-clinical services manager Brenda Peters, that the artwork would be donated to Waikato Hospital.
“By donating artwork to the hospital, young artists can be assured of public appreciation of their work,” said HBHS head of art James Sutherland.
“For everybody involved, it is a great way to give something positive, tangible and lasting to the community and we can feel a great sense of pride when walking through the corridors of the hospital and seeing our art displayed.”
Pictured: James Sutherland with some of the art on display at Waikato Museum including middle left, Simon Blanchett’s piece.

www.waikatodhb.health.nz/transfusion

Winners Transfusion 2011:

Wintec Scholarship – Simon Blanchett (HBHS)

National Art Supplies prizes:

Saskia Melville (Waikato Diocesan)

Dominique Williams (Hauraki Plains College)

Samantha Clarke (Sacred Heart Girls College)

The Framing Workshop prize:
Minako Yamashita (Te Awamutu College)

School Supplies prizes:

James Martell (HBHS)

Lana Morisson (Waikato Diocesan)

Hamilton Boys’ Prizes:

Yuna Kojima (Te Awamutu College)

Gage Hall (HBHS)

Billy Zhou (Hamilton’s Fraser High School)

Jessica Thomson (HGHS)

National Art School Prize:

Hamilton Boys High School

About Waikato District Health Board and Health Waikato:

Waikato DHB is responsible for planning, funding and providing quality health and disability support services for the 364,200 people living in the Waikato DHB region. It has an annual turnover of $1.1 billion and employs more than 6000 people.

Health Waikato is the DHB’s main provider of hospital and health services with an annual budget of more than $674 million and 4980 staff. It has six groups across five hospital sites, two continuing care facilities and 20 community bases offering a comprehensive range of primary, secondary and tertiary health services.

A wide range of independent providers deliver other Waikato DHB-funded health services - including primary health, pharmacies and community laboratories.