Winners of ‘Funky Fungi’ Art Competition Announced

Submitted by Aspergillus Administrator on 9 November 2012


Over 300 million people are acutely or chronically infected by fungi, leading to death, long term illness, blindness, psychological problems and reduced work capacity. Many recent improvements in diagnostics and treatment have not reached treating clinicians in all countries, and access to appropriate diagnostics and simple antifungal agents is far from universal. This needs to change.
LIFE ran an art competition for age 13 – 18 in the North West of England and North Wales running from late 2011 until May 2012, engaging thousands of schools throughout the area in an attempt to improve awareness of fungal diseases by the use of the creative arts

Project LIFE 2012 Theme: “Funky Fungi”

Fungi are beautiful and fascinating they are essential to our ecosystem in the carbon and nitrogen cycles, and are valuable in commerce as many industries require fungal activity eg. alcohol, bread and cheese making.

You will be familiar with  mushrooms and toadstools which are types of fungi, but the ones which cause disease are nearly invisible except with a microscope.
But some fungi can also cause human diseases. Fungal diseases are mostly hidden and diagnosis is often missed, around 300 million people worldwide are affected, in many different forms of illness, some of which are deadly.
The challenge was to design a piece of artwork using this as a theme. With more than 350 entries that met the challenge, these were judged by an independent panel to be the winners:


Overall Winner: Sophie Wills, Millom School, Cumbria

Judges comments: “Strength of message, strong story and deceptive naivety”



Second place: Erica Inglis, Stockport College (Ink and paper)

Judges comments: “Sensitivity, observation, insidious danger within the beauty. Beautiful image masks and invasive threat”

Third place: Jason Rhodes, Stockport College

Judges comments: “We are constantly reminded of danger – red figure, red immune system afloat in a world of hidden threats”

Congratulations to all 3 winners and the schools particularly Stockport College who had many strong, varied entries in the shortlist and finished with 2 in the top 3.

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