Louth students win big at LMETB Inter Schools Art and Photography Competition

The Louth and Meath Education and Training Board (LMETB) Inter Schools Art and Photography competition, in its tenth year, was open to students attending any of LMETB’s education centres. 

In the ambitious competition, there were six categories and a total of thirty-three prizes on offer, with the judges being iconic artist, Robert Ballagh, and renowned photographer, Ken Finegan. 

The exhibition will run until Saturday, March 29, at the Droichead Arts Centre in Drogheda with 33 pieces of art adorning the gallery walls. The official opening and awards night was held at the gallery on Thursday, March 13 and was a great occasion as it was packed with prize-winning students, family, friends, teachers and principals.

The competition organiser, Paul McCann, is an art teacher at St Oliver’s Community College, Drogheda, He said that the reason the competition was founded was to provide an opportunity for budding artists across LMETB’s education providers to showcase their talents and to achieve some recognition for same. The teacher praised the students for their outstanding work and complemented their parents, teachers, principals and coordinators for their mentoring and encouragement.

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Bridget Bennett, principal of Dunshaughlin community college, spoke on behalf of LMETB and expressed her delight at the standard of work on show. She praised this competition that gives students an opportunity to be creative and said that this is one of the goals of the organisation underpinned by excellence in education, care, equality, community and respect. 

Artist Robert Ballagh couldn’t attend the awards night but expressed his delight at the high standard of entries this year. He said that every year the quality of work increases and apologised for his absence. The artist stated that the creative process is a great confidence booster and that submitting and winning reinforces this in the best possibly way. 

Fellow judge Ken Finnegan congratulated the winners in the photography category and commented on the enjoyment he gained whilst judging due to the quality of work entered. He mentioned that selecting the winners was a hugely difficult task and complimented many of the entries that just missed out on a prize.

Chair of the board at LMETB, Nick Killian, expressed his delight at the talent on display, offering his congratulations to the students and officially opened the exhibition of the winners' work.

Congratulations to all the winners!