A world of images

When it comes to self-promotion, The Station at Richmond has never thought small.

That is one of the reasons why the community arts centre and visitor attraction created out of a once derelict railway station has been a huge success story for Yorkshire.

Run by a charitable trust, the £2.7m community enterprise now attracts around 350,000 visitors a year to its art gallery, cinema, heritage centre and cafe restaurant and the building is also home to six artisan food producers. It’s latest venture, the brainchild and last hurrah of Donald Cline, one of the organisation’s original trustees, is a photography competition with a £10,000 prize fund.

Born in Chicago, Donald has been a resident of the market town for more than 30 years and has been involved with the Station project right from the start. He was the driving force behind setting up the trust and raising funds for the sympathetic conversion of the building which eventually opened for business in November 2007.

“It’s been almost 10 years since I have been involved with the Station trust and I am really getting to the end of my involvement,” he says. “But I thought that I would like to do one last thing, something that would be challenging for myself and for the Station; something that’s international in scope.”

In the summer following its official opening, the Station held an open art exhibition, based on the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition, which was hugely successful. However, its popularity did cause some logistical problems.

“The week before the deadline for submissions we had around 500 entries and in the last week we got around 1,200,” explains Donald. “People had to physically bring their work to Richmond – and we didn’t have anywhere to store it all.” Luckily, local landowner Lord Ronaldshay, an enthusiastic supporter of the Station, kindly offered the use of his home, Aske Hall, as a storage space. “It all worked really well, but it was a tremendous amount of work. So this time I suggested that, rather than doing 2D art, perhaps we could change the theme and make it photography. We don’t then have the problem of storing work, as people can send in prints through the post or on a memory stick, email images or even upload a photo.”

Donald consulted renowned North Yorkshire-based landscape photographer Joe Cornish, who also has a long association with the Station trust, for advice.

“He had just finished judging the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition at the Natural History Museum,” says Donald. “And he suggested an open competition to encourage as broad a spectrum of people as possible.” Joe also agreed to be the chair of judges for the Best Shots competition on a panel which also includes Bafta chief executive Amanda Berry, Roger Tooth, head of photography at the Guardian, photojournalist Mike Maloney and architectural photographer J Collingbridge.

“What makes this different from many other photography competitions is that not only are all the participants supporting a charity, they will also all receive a full critique from each of the judges, regardless of whether they are successful in the competition or not.

“Because people are paying an entry fee, we wanted to offer them a whole range of incentives,” says Donald.

“So far, the response has been encouraging. This week, for example, we have had 1,500 visits to the website. Of those probably 100 have registered.

“We have had entries from a whole range of places – about forty different countries including Sri Lanka and Lebanon.”

The closing date for entries is midnight on April 30 and as well as the cash prizes, the judges’ top 100 will be exhibited at the Station over the summer. After that there will be a tour which will call in at three heritage sites in Scotland, Wales and the South of England.

“I wanted to create an opportunity for the work to tour,” explains Donald. “Instead of it being a static exhibition, it could move around the UK which I thought would be a challenging and fun thing to do. We found the venue we are using in North Wales when my wife and I were on holiday in the area. We were exploring and one day we went to the Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw art gallery on the Lleyn Peninsular near Pwllheli; it is the oldest art gallery in Wales. I got chatting to the director there about the project and he agreed to host the exhibition.”

The Scottish venue is Kellie Castle near Fife, a National Trust for Scotland property. This came about through a happy coincidence after Donald and his wife went to an arts festival near St Andrew’s. “We stayed in a lovely B&B and we got on well with the couple who run it – Roger and Joan,” says Donald.

“It turns out that Roger looks after three National Trust properties in the area including Kellie Castle.”

The third venue, Michelham Priory and Gardens in East Sussex was found through the Station’s connection with Lord Ronaldshay, who is also one of the main sponsors of the Best Shots competition. “I told him I was looking to get another venue,” says Donald.

“He is very active in the Historical Houses Association and so I some artwork about Best Shots with the tagline ‘free to a good home’ and sent it to the association.” Donald received a number of positive responses including one from Michelham Priory.

“There were lots more who were interested too,” he says. “The great thing is that if we do this again, all those connections are already there – the exhibition could tour for a whole year.”

Whatever he insists, it doesn’t sounds like Donald is ready to step away from the Station just yet.

BEST SHOTS COMPETITION SUBMISSION DETAILS

The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers and there are ten different categories to choose from: landscape, portraiture, still life, food and drink, sport, photo art, travel, animal life, phone photos and young snappers (for the under-12s). Each participant can submit up to five images and the cost is £10 per image or five for £30 – entry is free for the under-12s.

Submissions for Best Shots can be made online at www.bestshots.co.uk or you can send in photos on a CD, memory stick or as prints by downloading an entry form and sending it to Best Shots, c/o The Station, Richmond, North Yorkshire DL10 4LD. Or you can phone for an entry form on 01748 828254.