>February Events / >March Events / Art & Theatre / Business Editorials / Events in Norfolk and Suffolk / Tourist Attractions Norfolk and Suffolk February 28, 2019
Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) is searching for an artist to fill its latest and largest Urban Art space in Norwich.
Located at Riverside Entertainment, the 30 meter long ‘canvas’ is the 8th site ready to be transformed into an inspiring piece of outdoor street art following the theme: Norwich, the city of stories.
The winning artist can receive a commission of up to £10,000 to design and install their piece in Norwich city centre. Artists who do not have experience of installing a piece of this scale, have the option for Norwich BID to install and receive a reduced prize pot.
See full terms and conditions on the Norwich BID website https://www.norwichbid.co.uk/urban-art-competition.
Calling out for the first time to artists across the world, Norwich BID is searching for a truly exceptional artist to create a 21st century masterpiece for this magnificent medieval city during a year which sees big anniversaries and commemorations for some of the largest names in art history including Salvador Dali, Piet Mondrian, Leonardo Da Vinci and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Norwich city centre is already home to seven vibrant and eye-catching murals including a 3D bookshelf, a friendly dragon, and Norwich street scenes. These pieces have brought otherwise ordinary buildings and unusual spaces to life, adding to the Norwich art story which is already a very rich cultural offer.
Stefan Gurney, Executive Director at the BID said, “This is a fantastic project for the city and we are delighted to spread the geographical reach of the murals to the expanded BID area. We want Norwich’s urban art to be executed in a distinctive way, with each piece unique to Norwich interpreting the city’s history, surroundings, and vision for the years ahead. Norwich’s story telling heritage isn’t just told about words, its stories are told through its architecture, culture and art.”
Ann Mitchell, General Manager at Riverside Entertainment said, “We are delighted to be part of the Urban Art project and see our building used as the canvas for the largest mural in the city. We are especially excited to invite entries that link to water, the river and Norwich’s industrial heritage”.
Entries for submissions close on Monday 4 March.
Visit https://www.norwichbid.co.uk/urban-art-competition for more details and a submission pack.
Artists timeline:
- Submissions deadline 4 March 2019
- To be unveiled in April/May 2019
See www.norwichbid.co.uk/the-norwich-experience/murals/ for details of previous pieces.
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About Norwich BID
Established in November 2012 the Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) is run for local businesses by local businesses. It is a simple and tried and tested way of increasing economic prosperity for companies of all sizes through collaboration. The BID covers a defined area of Norwich where businesses plan how to improve their trading environment, identifying additional projects and services that develop the city centre and trade. Investment in the BID area aims to enhance and promote the local environment for businesses, employees, customers.
2017 saw Norwich BID’s term renewed by the business community for a further 5 years, with a wider scope and its area of operation expanded to include more areas of the city including Riverside.
The overarching vision is to; Make a clear positive impact on the vitality of our city centre and the success of the businesses within it.
Art in Norwich
The city of Norwich has a strong art heritage which includes, at Norwich Cathedral, one of the most magnificent pieces of art in Norwich – a 15th century retable: a wooden panel painting designed to stand at the back of an altar. The story goes that at the end of a meeting, one of the clergy dropped a pencil. Bending down to pick it up, he noticed that the underside of the table was decorated. On closer inspection, the Despencer Retable was discovered, having been turned upside down and used as a tabletop to protect it from destruction.
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery is home to the largest collection of Norwich School paintings whose members, including John Crome and John Sell Cotman, are recognised as landscape painters of international importance. The Castle galleries also display the soaring oil on canvas of the Tower of Babel by Tobias Verhaecht and the magnificent 17th century painting (by an unknown Dutch artist) ‘The Paston Treasure’, commissioned by Sir Robert Paston – 1st Earl of Yarmouth – in the mid-1670s depicting objects from the family’s extravagant collection.
The Halls in Norwich hold the largest collection of civic paintings in the country totalling 127 late 16th to 19th century paintings whilst at the magnificent Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts located on the campus of the University of East Anglia, see 5,000 years of world art including Picasso and Francis Bacon as well as outdoor sculpture by Henry Moore and Antony Gormley.
