Winners announced of Williamson Open 2025 as exhibition opens

The Williamson Open 2025 exhibition has opened at Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, with Ffion Travis and Ian Bradshaw announced as winners of the Art and Photography prizes

The Williamson Open has been an annual event, under various names, at the Williamson Art Gallery for over 60 years. The exhibition aims to showcase the very best of local artistic talent. In 2024 the entrance criteria were amended to enable artists living in, working in or from across Liverpool City Region to enter. This year the judges were Steve des Landes, Nathan Pendlebury and Will Sergeant.

The judges love the technique used in Ffion Travis’ ‘Fading Conversations’, which has been selected as the winner of the Art Prize, and the way that Travis has capture the small details which make up the everyday tasks and fabric of life.

The Photography Prize has been awarded to Ian Bradshaw for ‘Waiting Room, Bender, Transnistria 2019’. Both prize-winning works have been acquired by Williamson Art Gallery and will become permanent pieces of their collections.

Two further works, by Ryan Everson and Glyn Akroyd, were selected for commendation.

Councillor Ann Ainsworth, Vice-Chair of Wirral Council’s Tourism, Communities, Culture & Leisure Committee, said:

“It’s fantastic that The Williamson Open is back for another year. It’s a real showcase of the artistic talent in Wirral and the wider Liverpool City Region, and a much-loved staple of the borough’s cultural calendar”

The exhibition is open from Friday 10^th October until Saturday 13^th December, and is free to visit. Many of the works in the exhibition are available for sale and visitors may also vote for the winner of the Kriterion Award, which will be awarded in the closing week of the exhibition.