THE work of talented young people from across the district is on show at Craven Arts House in Skipton.

More than 200 young people took part in a recent annual young photographer and artist competition organised by Skipton Rotary Club - work from which is now on show at the centre in Otley Street for all to see until the end of March.

The talented youngsters rose to the challenge to come up with images showing their interpretation of 'rebuilding' - a theme described by the organisers as challenging, but one that those who entered showed they were more than up to the task, with a wide variety of interpretations of both the theme and choice of medium.

At the opening exhibition at Craven Arts House, more than 120 friends, family and Rotarians attended, with 40 young people collecting prizes and certificates. The centre is used by all sorts of different creative groups and the exhibition area was a rare opportunity for the young people to show off their creative skills in a professional exhibition environment.

Nicky Shoesmith, president of Skipton Rotary Club, who also organised the competition, presented each of the competitors with a certificate and thanked all those who helped out and the young people who entered.

She said: “The standard gets better each year and I’m proud as president that our rotary club is able to allow such a diverse group of young people to show their off skills."

Results: Winners in the photography section were Evie Knight, Lothersdale (Junior); Isabella Hazlehurst, Giggleswick School (Intermediate) and Aaden Ford, Settle College (Senior).

Evie, at five years old, was the youngest to take part in the contest. She said: "I made a building out of Lego that my sister, Pip, broke. Pip started to help by passing bricks to rebuild the building. The photographs are natural to show a rebuilding friendship between sisters and me working to rebuild the Lego."

Winners in the 'young artist' section were Millie Rooke Upper Wharfedale (Senior), and Alice Shaw also from Upper Wharfedale (Intermediate).

Young Artist Fatima Hassan from Skipton Girls High School, currently studying for A-levels; said that "Doing the artwork was a nice stress reliever because it let me have a break from my revision for A-levels while also letting me express my creativity."

Freya Greenwood from Upper Wharfedale, said: "Entering the rotary competition was very exciting as it was nothing I had done before. It is really nice as a community to celebrate local art work and to see my peers work on show. I am so pleased with my fragmented artwork on the theme of rebuilding and to see it on display was great. The event was held to show everyone’s talents."

Teacher, Sarah Newall, subject leader, art and design from Upper Wharfedale School, added: "The rotary competition has some excellent and highly developed entries from both senior and intermediate students and it was just great to see the diversity of ideas from Craven schools. "Upper Wharfedale was delighted to receive seven placements in both the art and photography competition for the third year running. Our students really enjoy participating in local events and competitions. They have been a credit to the school.’’ All winners go through to the district heats of the rotary competition.

On behalf of Skipton Rotary Club, Nicky Shoesmith congratulated the students on their superb creative skills skills, thanked the judges, Carolyn Hird-Rogers, and Andrew Fitzgibbon from the Craven Arts House who had the unenviable task of judging the wide variety of creative pieces. She also thanked parents and teachers who supported the competitors and Rotarian helpers, and on behalf of the rotary club and finally the Craven Arts House for enabling the event to take place and holding the exhibition.

The exhibition runs from 11am to 4pm Wednesday to Saturday until March 8; and then from 11am to 4pm, Thursday to Saturday until March 30.

The next creative challenge is to create an Eco character which will form part of an Eco-trail around Skipton – colour/black-white drawing/collage open to any age – entries to be sent to nicky.shoesmith@skiptonrotary.org by Wednesday March 13.

Skipton Rotary's second Eco Day Saturday at Skipton Town Hall is due to take place on April 27 from 1pm to 4pm. There will be a variety of stalls, crafts for people to take part in and delicious cakes and refreshments by The Yorkshire Pudding company, businesses wanting to be involved are asked to contact david.newall@skiptonrotary.org. The competition is the second this year for Skipton Rotary, and follows its young chef competition.

For more information about Skipton Rotary Club and how to get involved look at Skipton Rotary on Facebook, SkiptonRotary.org