National recognition for teen artist

Tuesday 31 January 2023

A student's artwork based on imagery surrounding the Holocaust has been recognised with inclusion in a digital exhibition for artists under 25 from across the UK and islands.

13-year-old Mair, a student at The Ladies’ College, was recognised in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s 2023 competition.

The winners were announced ahead of this year's Holocaust Day commemorations, held last Friday, 27 January.

Mair's "powerful" artwork commemorated the life and horrors of the Holocaust inline with this year's competition theme which was '(Extra)Ordinary Portraits'.

She had chosen to focus her art work on Auguste Spitz, one of the Jewish women who had been deported from Guernsey during the Occupation and perished in Auschwitz.

Pictured: 13-year-old Mair was praised for her work having researched the tragic story of Auguste Spitz.

The Ladies' College Art Club students had been tasked with studying people affected by the Holocaust, or later genocides such as in Darfur or Srebrenica, and through that guidance Mair and her fellow students had looked into the lives of Ms Spitz, Therese Steiner, and Marianne Grunfeld, who were all transported by the Nazis from Guernsey to France during the war.  During their research, the students made use of digital archives including the records from Yad Vashem and the Frank Falla Archive. 

Head of History at The Ladies’ College, Mrs Henderson, said: "We are extremely proud of each student who took on this challenge. There is a huge amount of research needed for these projects and we are mesmerised by how they creatively approached their work.  

"We congratulate Mair for her success in the competition and we are incredibly proud. Her artwork has even featured in The Jewish Chronicle, The European Jewish Congress and The Jerusalem Post."

Mair's artwork, and the other entries, were judged by an expert panel which included the photographer Rankin, Olivia Marks-Woldman OBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and Tulip Siddiq, Shadow Education Minister and member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.

Together they chose 30 to be displayed digitally on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s website - and they can all be viewed HERE.