THE display aspect of Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, will be staged on December 14 when the results of the winning entries are announced at a ceremony in Castellani House, Vlissengen Road, Georgetown. The announcement was made by Mr. Alim Hosein, a linguistics lecturer at University of Guyana (UG), who has been tasked with planning and managing the event.
During an interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday, he said the judges for the contest have been confirmed but their names will not be released now, because of the possibility that competitors could attempt to approach them beforehand.
However, he revealed that five persons will be doing the judging, one from Barbados, a Guyanese living in the United States (U.S.) and three  Guyanese resident here.
“All of these persons have had lifetime involvement in visual arts, lifetime involvement at the highest level in creative arts,” Hosein stated.
He said entries are now trickling in and people have been calling constantly to enquire about the event.
“So we know that there is lots of interest. Some persons have brought their works in already to Burrowes School of Art and others are calling in and more persons are now hearing about the competition and they are also calling to clarify the entrance requirements,” Hosein related.
In addition, he advised that a catalogue of the artists and their work will be compiled and put on show in libraries, ministries, embassies and other institutions around the country, either before or at least very soon after the competition.

Photographs  
For this reason, Hosein said competitors are expected to complete a registration form and submit two passport size photographs with their art work.
“The registration form is so that we can know something about the artist and we could know something about the art work. Part of the competition, too, is to make a database of artists in Guyana so the registration form has two sheets, one about the artist and the other about the art work,” he explained.
Hosein pointed out, further, that registration forms can be downloaded from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport website, mcys.gov.gy and submitted, along with photos and art pieces to the Burrowes School of Art.
The judging will begin on December 8 and the exhibition will be declared open during the award ceremony.
This visual art exhibition can be viewed by the public daily at the National Gallery in Castellani House until December 31, during the specified visiting hours. It will feature original works from Guyanese artists in six categories, painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, textile and photography.
In addition, the general public is invited to a lecture on Caribbean Visual Arts, by one of the competition judges, at the Umana Yana, in Kingston, Georgetown, too, on December 12.