Grayson Perry, the Turner Prize winning artist best known for dressing as his female alter ego Claire, may be heading to York – if we all vote for the idea.
The Yorkshire Museum wants to bag the prime potter for an event in May. But it faces fierce competition from other British venues as part of the Connect10 Museums at Night competition.
Run by digital publisher Culture24, the contest invites museums and galleries to bid for an artist to stage an event at their venue during the Museums At Night Weekend (May 15-17 2014).
The Yorkshire Museum is on the shortlist with their idea for an event: a night of teddy bear hide and seek.
“Grayson Perry is one of the world’s most famous potters. His teddy bear, Alan Measles, features in many of his works, with Grayson often describing him as the god of his imaginary world,” explains Gaby Lees, the museum’s assistant curator of arts and learning.
“We put the idea of having a giant game of teddy bear hide and seek with bears in our collection to Grayson and he liked it so much he named us in his shortlist of museums he may visit. We now need as many votes from the public as possible to make this happen.”
For Grayson to come to the Yorkshire Museum it must get more public votes than the other shortlisted museums – the Freud Museum, Courtauld Gallery and the Museum of Soho – all in London.
How to vote for Grayson
Go to this link on the Culture24 website between Tuesday, January 14 and 5pm on Tuesday, January 28.
If the York Museums Trust – which runs the Yorkshire Museum – secures the most votes Grayson Perry will play a game of hide and seek with bears from the museum and give a talk to the general public. And who doesn’t want to see that?
The bears, from the York Museums Trust collection, will include a six foot stuffed brown bear, a teddy bear from the First World War and ceramic bears from York Art Gallery.
As a part of the campaign for Grayson Perry and Alan Measles, the Trust wants pictures of you with you favourite teddy bear. Send your pictures to @museumbear on Twitter.
Potted history of a potter
1960 Grayson Perry born in Chelmsford, Essex
1980 Exhibits his first piece of pottery at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
1982 Graduates with a BA in Fine Art from Portsmouth Polytechnic
2003 Awarded the Turner Prize
2011 Major solo exhibition at The British Museum
2012 All In The Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry broadcast on Channel 4. Wins BAFTA
2013 Delivers the BBC Reith Lectures. Awarded a CBE.