Let’s say farewell to 2020 on a positive note with this announcement of the winners of the UK’s Young Cartoonist of the Year…
THE CARTOON MUSEUM AND BRITISH CARTOONISTS’ ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF YOUNG CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR 2020
We are delighted to announce the winners of the 25th Young Cartoonist of the Year competition. Over 150 entries were received from all over the UK, with winners decided by a panel of judges comprised of luminaries of British newspaper and comic cartooning.
The winners are:
Under 30s – Fergus Boylan (age 29) from Antrim
Under 18s – Daniel Meikle (age 10) from Banbury
Each of the winners receives £250 prize money and a certificate. Due to social distancing the certificates will be presented to the winners at a later date, with a hope to display the works of the winners and runners-up either at The Cartoon Museum when it re-opens in 2021, or online on the museum website.
The 2020 awards were judged by a panel that included Martin Rowson (BCA Chairman and The Guardian cartoonist), Christian Adams (The Evening Standard), Banx (The Financial Times), Ella Barron (2017 Under 30 category winner), Steve Bell (The Guardian), Hannah Berry (Comics Laureate), Peter Brookes (The Times), Dave Brown (The Independent), Grizelda (The Spectator), Matt (The Daily Telegraph), Nick Newman (Private Eye), Woodrow Phoenix (She Lives), Paul Thomas (The Daily Mail) and Oliver Preston (Chairman of The Cartoon Museum).
The Young Cartoonist of the Year competition was originally set up as the ‘Mel Calman Young Cartoonist Competition’, in memory of the great Times cartoonist and Cartoon Art Trust founder. In 2001 the competition morphed into its current form, led by Martin Rowson who recruited judges from each national newspaper, leading to wide publicity for the competition, with free adverts run by many papers, including The Guardian and The Times, who ran adverts for the 2020 competition. The competition, now in its 25th year, has produced winners including Nick Edwards (2009) who went on to win an Emmy for his work on Uncle Grandpa in the US, New Yorker cartoonist Will McPhail, and political cartoonist Matt Buck.
This year’s awards were funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, as part of a £98,700 grant to support the museum in combatting the severe financial threat resulting from the museum’s closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding, made possible by National Lottery players, was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund, where £50million has been made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector.
Chair of the British Cartoonists Association, Martin Rowson said:
“In this foulest of years, about the only group of people to have prospered are Jeff Bezos, takeaways and cartoonists – in each case because nothing has changed. With us cartoonists, we’re still stuck indoors on our own staring out of the window, until magically we succeed in teasing a laugh out of the worst things imaginable. For the last 25 years it’s been an honour for the British Cartoonists’ Association to conspire at the corruption of the young by encouraging thousands of them to do the same, through the Young Cartoonists of the Year Competition. Even if the last thing any of us need is young, energetic competition. As I’ve been saying for years at the Cartoon Awards when the winners receive their prizes, really this is just a way of identifying the really good ones so we can break their talented tiny fingers to protect our jobs.”
Director of The Cartoon Museum, Joe Sullivan said:
“A huge congratulations to Daniel and Fergus and we are incredibly grateful that the National Lottery Heritage Fund has supported us through such a difficult year. Their support will safeguard the immediate future of the museum and go a long way to securing our long-term sustainability. We want to say a huge thank you to all Lottery players for their support.
We also want to thank the National Lottery Heritage Fund and all National Lottery players for their support of this year’s awards, helping to nurture and develop the skills of the cartoonists of tomorrow.”
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.
Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to initiatives such as the Young Cartoonist of the Year during this uncertain time.”
To find out more about the National Lottery Good Causes visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response
