Hundreds of students get creative for the urban art festival competition

A full gallery of student art is available to view and vote in Wolverhampton’s Mander Center as dozens of primary and secondary school students create their best pieces of football-themed art.

The ‘Walking for Wolves’ artworks were created as part of a public voting competition for the second Wolverhampton Arts Festival which sees students create Wolves themed artworks in a bid to win the first place trophy of the festival.

This year’s winner will be decided by a vote, with members of the public able to choose their favorite pieces via a ballot which can be handed in to a red ‘post box’ inside the Mander Centre.

Wayne Horton, gallerist at Framer’s Gallery and event organizer for Wolverhampton Art Festival, said: “This is our second year running the art festival and this year it’s bigger and better than ever.

“We’re letting the public choose three of their favorite pieces via a ballot box, and we’ll count all the ballots and announce the winner on Sunday morning during the arts festival.”

The competition saw dozens of area schools submit their student entries, with Wayne saying it was hard to pick a favourite.

The event organizer added: “He made some absolutely brilliant pieces of art. They really are all fantastic. It’s great to see the students putting their imaginations into it. I don’t know how people will decide.

“This year we will have three winners, one prize for first, second and third place, with the first place winner receiving a sum of money and a trophy.”

The Wolverhampton Arts Festival is an annual event that first gathered on Victoria Street last year, however this year organizers expect it to be bigger and better than ever.

Wayne said: “Last year we filled around 20 gazebos with activities, installations and other things for people to get involved and create or advertise their art communities. It really is a great art networking event.

“We estimated we had around 2,000 visitors last year. This year we also have the Mander Center where we have set up 18 stalls for people to buy art supplies and also get involved in art activities. It’s going to be amazing .”

The images are available to view and vote on outside the former Wilko store in Wolverhampton’s Mander Centre.

The final vote will take place on Sunday 7 June at 11am, with the winner announced at 12pm by Wolverhampton Wanderers legend Steve Bull.