Our World in the Year 2000 - The Competition

The theme for the competition, My Country in the Year 2000, was broad enough to make it accessible to all comers. Artists were free to interpret the theme in any way, which suited their subject, style, and technique. It might be portrait, landscape, abstract, still life, or figurative – whatever artists felt represented their country in their own distinctive manner. Each painting had to be no larger than 120 x 80 x 20 cm framed. The media to be used by the artists included watercolour, oil, acrylic, gouache, and pastel, so that the focus would be on drawn and painted media, rather than collage, photography, or computer-assisted art.

As Winsor & Newton trades in 110 countries, it approached the many companies worldwide which distribute their products to see whether they would be prepared to organise and take responsibility for the competition in their own country.

The annual trade fair, Paper World, held in Frankfurt, Germany, in January 1998, provided the ideal opportunity to launch the project, as many of the Winsor & Newton distributors would be attending. Winsor & Newton expected a maximum of 30 countries to sign up for the competition, but were surprised to find that over 50 had done so by the closing date a month later.

At Winsor & Newton, London, an equally daunting task was the production and distribution worldwide of over one million competition entry forms and posters, the terms and conditions of which had to be carefully translated into 23 different languages. These were sent to each country to be distributed in turn to art shops, schools and colleges, libraries, art galleries and museums. In India the competition was run by the Winsor & Newton distributor Camlin Ltd, in Mumbai, whose retailers helped to deliver the entry forms and posters to 173 art galleries, 386 schools of art, and 180 fine art shops, and individually to 2,736 artists.

In some parts of the world, an enormous amount of work was done to ensure that even the most remote places were catered for. In South America, for example, forms were given out and posters displayed in far away Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, on the southernmost tip of Argentina, near the Antarctic. The organiser in Peru, Miguel Agreda of Exampe SRL, not wishing to rely on the postal service, flew around the country with bundles of forms and posters, giving them to retailers in distant towns such as Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. In Ecuador, the districts the winning artists came from typified the spread that certain countries managed to achieve: from the Amazon rainforest to the capital, Quito, in the Andes; and from the huge port of Guayaquil on the coast to the small town of Ambato.

Judging the individual national competitions mostly took place in the first three months of 1999. The judges included prominent artists, critics, museum curators, lecturers, and arts administrators. In some countries, it was decided that art should be judged only by artists.

In South Africa a grand private view was attended by more than 300 people, including the winning artists, whom the organiser had arranged to be flown in from around the country. Each was presented with art materials and cash prizes. The competition, judging, and exhibition received considerable coverage on TV, radio, and in magazines and newspapers.

In many parts of the world, the British Council, British Embassy, or British Consulate played an important supportive part, facilitating the securing of venues for judging, spaces for exhibiting, receptions, VIP guests, and the all-important press and media coverage.