Communicating the frontiers of neuroscience through art

2007 topics:
Neurodegeneration (see background)
Stem Cells (see background)
Thinking Proteins (see background)
Posters (Poster1 or tif1, Poster2 or tif2)
Sponsored by MRC and Heffers, Cambridge
Press Coverage: Cambridge Evening News June 2007, Style June 2007, Agenda July 2007, Selvedge July2007 , CEN June 2007

Judges for 2007 were:
Barry Phipps, Artist and curator, Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge and
Sarah Campbell, Education Officer, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
Invitation to apply
The winners for 2007: Kate Sargan, Isaac McGinley and Stuart Ritson (larger image)

A Graceful Decline
1st prize
Kate Sargan
The Perse School for Girls

In this piece the artist looks at the breakdown of the human mind in Parkinsons. The artist experimented with various textiles and the final material represents the untangling of the human brain.

Awarded a Summer placement
Materials used:
Judge's comments: This entry was awarded first-place primarily because of the artists' ability to take a highly complex, and emotionally charged, neurological condition and treat it with maturity and inventiveness. The creative process that lay behind the finished work displayed a high level of self-critical experimentation combined with a poetic handling of materials.

(Artist with work)


Neurodegeneration: Why should we care?
2nd prize
Stuart Ritson
Hills Road Sixth Form College

(Larger version of painting / sketch)
Awarded a Summer placement

Judge's comments: The combination of a sustained process of interpretation of a given title with a sympathetic graphic technique led to this entry receiving second-place. The exploratory sketches were particularly outstanding and insightful in allowing the judges to understand the thought-process behind the final painting.

Thinking Proteins

3rd prize
Isaac McGinley
Long Road Sixth Form College

A depiction of the complex interactions of proteins in a cell.

Judge's comments: By the far the boldest work amongst the submissions, this entry was admired and credited for its' ambition and scale. The artists' mindful use of recycled materials, both in the maquette (see below) and final piece, exhibited a highly developed understanding and awareness of sculptural form.

(Details in final piece)

Thinking Proteins

Macquette for larger piece above

by

Isaac McGinley

Neurodegeneration: My Grandfather's Brain

Sophie Blows
 Impington Village College

Various manifestations of life in the brain from DNA to an MRI scan

(Larger version of painting)

A landscape of cells
Undine Bork
 Impington Village College

Imagination running wild.

(Larger version of painting)

Stem Cells
A new lease of life

Anne Martin
Impington Village College

Various manifestations of stem cells.
Reception for winners, with Hugh Pelham, head of LMB, in Neurobiology Division of the MRC-LMB on 24 May 2007 (Picture)

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