A scholarship named after the internationally renowned Isle of Man artist and art nouveau designer Archibald Knox and worth ?3,000 as a travel bursary to this year’s winning student is to be sponsored by marketing, design and public relations agency Home Strategic.
Five creative students from Isle of Man College will be shortlisted for the award and the winner will be announced at the Archibald Knox 150th Anniversary Dinner on June 25.
The bursary, spread over three years, is designed to help with travel costs incurred by the student in pursuing his or her university degree. At the end of each academic year the student is expected to return to the College and give a talk on the places they have travelled to as a result of the scholarship and its impact on their own work.
“We are greatly indebted to Home Strategic for sponsoring an award which helps to perpetuate the memory of the only Manx artist famous worldwide,” said Liam O’Neill, chairman and founder of the Archibald Knox Society. “Today his jewellery and metalwork manufactured by Liberty & Co at the beginning of the 20th century fetch the highest prices at major auction houses such as Christies, Sotheby’s and Bonhams.”
Lee McLellan, business development director at Home Strategic said: “We see this sponsorship as an extension of the work experience programme that the company pursues and which gives ‘A’ Level students a flavour of life beyond college.”
He added: “Archibald Knox was undoubtedly ahead of his time and something of a free spirit, we believe this scholarship helps to reflect the values he stood for, along with his philosophy which Home Strategic also adopts, ‘never be ordinary, better to be anything than that’.”
Helen Fox, head of art, design and media at Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education, said the bursary gives the winning student some invaluable financial freedom to travel in furthering a potential career path while studying for their degree.
“A student becomes more rounded and mature as a result of benefiting from possibly travelling to other countries, experiencing a country’s art and culture, something which might not be feasible without the bursary,” she added.
A special exhibition ‘Beauty and Society – a Designer Ahead of Time’ to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the artist’s birth is being held at the International Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia Earls Court, London from June 5 to 15th in association with the Archibald Knox Society.
Photograph: From left – Home Strategic directors Chris Cubbon and Lee McLellan with Liam O’Neill, chairman and founder of the Archibald Knox Society, and Helen Fox, head of art, design and media at Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education.
For further information please contact Les Able at Home PR: 610121/498355
