Northern Art Prize: Northern exposure that put region's artists on the map

Now in its fifth year, the Northern Art Prize is a firm fixture in the cultural calendar. Arts reporter Nick Ahad on this year's finalists.

In 2007 the ambitious Pippa Hale had an idea.

Tired of seeing fellow artists flee the North, believing the only way to make a living and be taken seriously as an artist working today was to be near London, she came up with a bold plan for a new art prize.

The Northern Art Prize would establish the region as a powerhouse of art, celebrate the work of artists living in the North and give them a realistic opportunity to work and live way above the Watford Gap.

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Sarah Brown is in an ideal position to gauge just how important the NAP has become. Over the past decade she has worked in the arts in Yorkshire, but this is the first time she has been directly involved with the NAP. Brown was recently appointed exhibitions curator at Leeds Art Gallery, home to the prize, which means this year she is in charge of showing the work of the four shortlisted artists.

"When it first began, I thought it was a good thing for the arts in the region," says Brown, who at the time was working as a curator at Huddersfield Art Gallery.

"Since the first year the momentum has built and it's become a really important part of the arts scene not just in Yorkshire, but across the North. Over 400 people are coming to the private view on Thursday night, which shows just how popular it is."

Add to that the 100,000 people who are expected to visit the NAP exhibition between its official opening today and when it closes on February 6, and the Northern Art Prize can consider itself well and truly established.

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This year's four shortlisted artists have been nominated from galleries in Sunderland, Preston, Liverpool and Sheffield. Curators from across the North nominate artists for a long list and from that list four artists make it to the stage where they exhibit their work at Leeds Art Gallery for a two month period. The first prize, selected by a judging panel which this year includes Mark Lawson, wins 16,500 and the three runners up take 1,500 each. The money, provided by a list of sponsors including Logistik, Arup and Leeds City Council, is an important part of lending the prize credibility, but also an important boost to the artists' fluctuating income.

In previous years the exhibition has seen four self- contained solo shows in the gallery. This year, as Brown leads a tour around the exhibition, there is a different feel to the NAP.

"Rather than four separate shows, I wanted this year's exhibition to show how the artists' work relates to each other," she says.

It makes for a much more fluid experience this year, the first in which the prize has felt like an exhibition with a theme, as opposed to four artists competing with each other.

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"The competition element is important to the artists, obviously," says Brown.

"But I thought it was also important to make it an experience that anyone could come and experience and enjoy."

This year's shortlist

Alec Finlay: Newcastle based artist and poet who works across a range of media, including poetry, sculpture, collage and audio visual technology.

Lubaina Himid: Professor of Contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire, has had solo shows in St Ives, New York and Havana. Also collected by the Tate and Victoria and Albert.

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David Jacques: Winner of the 2010 Liverpool Art Prize, works in media including painting, film, photography and text.

Haroon Mirza: First solo exhibition just a year ago, in Liverpool. Lives and works in Sheffield.

www.northernartprize.org.uk

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