The Dorset Open - 18 Oct - 30 Nov
25 September 2025
The Dorset Open
Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, High West Street, Dorchester DT1 1XA
18 October - 30 November 2025
Celebrating Creativity Across the County
This brand-new major open art competition is a landmark first collaboration between Dorset Visual Arts and Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, with support from Dorchester Arts, Arts in Hospital and Evolver Magazine.
Over 100 selected works capture the essence of the region’s landscape, people, history and culture, exploring each artist’s relationship to the area. Dorset’s rich history has always provided stimulating subject matter for artists, from Turner, Constable and Thornhill to Paul Nash, Mary Spencer Watson, Sir Anthony Caro and Dame Elizabeth Frink. Now more than ever, the visual arts offer a vital means of understanding the world, inspiring, uplifting, and educating us all. Alongside the equally inspiring history and heritage of Dorset Museum & Art Gallery’s collection, The Dorset Open showcases a wealth of creative exploration and enquiry.
Entries were carefully reviewed by a professional judging panel of five experts drawn from across the arts and cultural sectors:
- Freeny Yianni - (Curator and Gallerist, Close Ltd)
- Simon Barber - (Editor, Evolver Magazine)
- Suzy Rushbrook - (Curator, Arts in Hospital)
- Ian Middleton RWA - Sculptor
- Jack Dickson - Artist and Participant in BBC Extraordinary Portraits
The Dorset Open provides a new opportunity to showcase the best of the region’s creative talent in a world-class gallery space. The prize categories recognised outstanding artistic achievement, celebrating creativity across experience levels, backgrounds, and perspectives:
- First general category: £500
- Second general category: £250
- Young/Emerging Artist category: £200
- Climate Emergency Award: £200
- Dorchester Arts solo exhibition during Dorset Art Weeks 2026
- Dorset County Hospital exhibition
- DVA Prize: 1 year DVA Membership + free Dorset Art Weeks entry + Sherborne Times feature
- DM&AG Prize: Arts and Culture Bundle
- Evolver Magazine Feature
- Framing Prize: Provided by Mount Collective
- People’s Winner (public vote): £100 + showcase on DMAG digital platforms
Following the climate emergency declarations by Dorset Visual Arts and Dorset Council, a prize category highlights artworks addressing the Climate and Ecological Emergency, through work that either employs sustainable artistic methods or whose subject matter explores environmental threats or concerns.
The Dorset Open forms part of a broader cultural initiative to celebrate the visual arts and support artists with opportunities to show their work, reinforcing the shared mission of Dorset Visual Arts and Dorset Museum & Art Gallery to champion creativity, inclusion, and community engagement across the region.
Image: Jane Atkinson, Oxygen 1-4
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