Imaginative Great Create entries share vision for a sustainable future

Creatives across Teesside shared their inspiration for a sustainable future with innovative pieces of work as part of this year’s MIMA Great Create.

MIMA Great Create, which was developed Teesside University’s School of Arts & Creative Industries, in collaboration MIMA, calls for creative pieces which celebrate the theme of creating a sustainable future.

Each creative piece, produced solely for MIMA Great Create, could be a comic, piece of music, film, model, artwork, photograph, fashion item or illustration. Successful entries will also be featured in a special pop-up exhibition at MIMA.

The three winning categories were creative in the community, current Teesside University student, and school or college student. In addition, for the first time this year, there was a People’s Champion category, voted for by members of the public through social media.

Special trophies were created for the winners and runners-up by the design team in School of Arts & Creative Industries, using waste wood off-cuts, in keeping with the sustainability theme.

The creative in the community title went to Iran Mahadewage, with his untitled painting, which aimed to demonstrate the vibrancy of children’s thoughts about their surroundings.

Iran, who worked as a graphic designer in his native Sri Lanka, said: “I wanted to use bright colours and give the painting a childlike look, as the aim was to depict children in the future.

“The inspiration was a feeling of getting the message across that we should protect today for our future. It’s great that my work has won this award and I am really proud.”

Winner of the student category was MA Fine Art student Frances White, with her painting Blueprint. The upper section of the artwork depicts our current world, with the lower section showing what can be achieved by redesigning our world with the environment as a central consideration.

Frances said: “The MIMA Great Create has been a great opportunity for me. My present course is encouraging me to step out of my comfort zone, and to get involved with the larger art community within the Teesside area, and all the opportunities opening up for me.

“It was really a shock when I heard I had won. I don’t usually create work for other people, or work to a specific brief, so it was a real step forward for me and leap of faith to do this.”

College and school category winner was Stockton Sixth Form College student, Scarlett Gardner, with her untitled pencil drawing. Scarlett’s artwork depicts the progress relating to sustainability throughout the generations. It features the townscape of Yarm within a lightbulb, held by young and old hands.

She said: “I really liked the idea of showing how the older generation passes on the world to the younger generation. The artwork demonstrates how we can repair and restore the environmental damage caused by previous generations if we work together.”

Winner of the People’s Champion category, voted for by members of the public, was artwork titled Unexpected Encounter, by MA Concept Art student, Li Shiyi. More than 600 votes were placed on social media by members of the public.

The digital image depicts a dystopian future, described as Earth devastated by a pandemic leading to an apocalyptic world where most humans and animals perished, apart from one girl who embarks on a journey for survival. A decade on, she encounters a family of wild deer in a barren city.

Li Shiyi, who shared that he had taken inspiration from cult video game and television show The Last of Us, said: “I really did not expect this, and I’m really surprised to win.”

Dr Laura Sillars, MIMA Director and Dean of the University’s School of Arts & Creative Industries, said: “We were so excited to see what creatives would produce for this third year of the MIMA Great Create and the quality of entries was amazing.

“There’s a really important role that creativity and art have in relation to the environment, climate change and sustainability, and we want to continue to encourage our local communities to have a creative life.

“We’d also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who got involved, from the judges to the teachers, lecturers, friends and family who encouraged and supported their creative to have the confidence to put their work forward.”

The judges this year for MIMA Great Create were fashion lecturer Abigail Dennison; Bobby Benjamin, artist and curator; Ben Dickenson Chief Executive at Theatre Hullabaloo in Darlington; Dawid Hawak, Professor of Decarbonisation of Industrial Clusters at NetZero; Drucilla Burrell, Associate Creative Director at Adobe Studio; Errol Theunissen, painter and illustrator; Elinor Morgan, artistic director, MIMA; and Hayley Harris, Great Create winner 2023.

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