Hundreds of students get creative for city art festival competition

A full gallery of student art is available to view and vote for in Wolverhampton's Mander Centre as dozens of primary and secondary school students create their very best football-themed art pieces.

The 'Walking for Wolves' art pieces were created as part of a public vote competition for the second-ever Wolverhampton Art Festival, which sees students create Wolves-themed art pieces in an attempt to win the festival's first-place trophy.

The winner this year will be decided by a vote, with members of the public able to choose their favourite pieces via a voting slip that can be handed in at a red 'post box' inside the Mander Centre.

Wayne Horton, gallery owner at the Framer's Gallery and event organiser for the Wolverhampton Art Festival, said: "This is the second year that we are running the arts festival and this year it's bigger and better than ever.

"We are letting the public choose three of their favourite pieces via a ballot box, and we will count all the slips and announce the winner on Sunday morning during the arts festival."

The competition has seen dozens of schools around the area submit their student's work, with Wayne saying it is hard to choose a favourite.

The event organiser added: "It has made some absolutely brilliant art pieces. They really are all fantastic. It's wonderful to see the students putting their imagination into it. I don't know how people are going to decide.

"This year we will have three winners, a first, second and third place prize, with the first place winner getting a sum of money and a trophy."

The Wolverhampton Arts Festival is a yearly event that held its first gathering on Victoria Street last year, however this year, organisers expect it to be bigger and better than ever.

Wayne said: "Last year we filled around 20 gazebos with activities, installations and other things for people to get involved and create or advertise their art communities. It's really a big art networking event.

"We estimated that we got around 2,000 visitors last year. This year we have also got the Mander Centre, where we have put 18 stalls for people to purchase art supplies and also to get involved in art activities. It's going to be amazing."

The pictures are available to see and vote for outside of the former Wilko store in the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton.

The final vote will be cast at 11am on Sunday, June 7, with the winner being announced at 12pm by Wolverhampton Wanderers legend Steve Bull.