Calling All Amateur Artists…

By Alison Graves

Get creative!

The wonderful Songs of Praise team has joined forces with BBC’s Children in Need to launch their magical UK-wide Christmas Card competition. Yes, we did say Christmas (!) but there’s nothing like being prepared!

All budding artists should get set to dig out their paintbrushes and switch their creative heads on as the opportunity to have your artwork featured on a Christmas card, which will be sold during the festive period to raise money for the charity, gets underway.

Welcoming all ages and abilities (sorry professional artists though, you can’t enter), the public are being encouraged to artistically reflect what Christmas means to them and entries will be judged on their originality, creativity, public appeal and their ability to capture the spirit of Christmas.

A total of ten winners will be selected, by a small judging panel, and their artwork will be used to create a card for the Songs of Praise Christmas Card pack. The judges, to be announced in due course, will include an expert from the arts world and a presenter from Songs of Praise.

Pudsey’s ready – are you?

Songs of Praise have long been supporters of BBC Children in Need, broadcasting Children in Need special programmes and appeal films to their audiences for over 20 years. This will be the first time that they have launched a competition to raise money.

Josie D’Arby, Songs of Praise

Songs of Praise presenter, Josie d’Arby, said, “This is a really exciting opportunity for people of all ages to pick up a paint brush and express what Christmas means to them. The prize is amazing – having your image seen on Christmas cards around the country and all whilst raising money for Children in Need. For any budding artist or hobbyist it doesn’t get better than that. Go on, unleash your creativity!”

As well as the competition, BBC Children in Need will be sharing “how-to” films on their social media sites over the course of the competition to share ideas, inspiration and creative ways to get arty.