The deadline for entries into the 2010 Chemicals Northwest Awards has been extended.

Businesses across the Northwest now have until March 26 2010 to take part in this year’s awards, which showcase the world-class chemical companies in the region in the media.

Building on the success of 2009’s inaugural awards, the 2010 awards fly the flag for industry in the UK and highlight the achievements of the chemical sector in the region in the past 12 months.

The chemical industry in the North West is the largest chemical producing area in the country and includes 650 companies which employ more than 50,000 people.

This the last chance for these companies enter the Chemicals Northwest Awards which culminate with a prestigious high-profile dinner at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, on Thursday May 20, 2010.

There are nine categories in which companies can enter:

• Innovation - Product or Process
• Sustainable Manufacturing
• Environmental Technology for the Chemical Industry
• Investor in Training 
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• International Trade
• Service Provider
• Young Achiever in the NW Chemical Sector
• Chemicals Northwest Company of the Year 

 Dr Jenny Clucas, Chemicals Northwest’s CEO, said: “The Chemicals Northwest Awards is a major celebration.

“The chemical sector contributes a staggering £10bn to the Northwest economy and continues to be a strong and diverse industry.

“We hope companies across the sector will make use of the extended deadline to enter the awards and help us showcase their fantastic work.”

For more details about entering or attending the awards dinner, please call Alex Heys on 01928 515678 or email alex.heys@chemicalsnorthwest.org.uk 

Alternatively please visit www.chemicalsnorthwest.org.uk

Artinliverpool.com, the top British art blog and founder and organiser of the annual Liverpool Art Prize, are delighted to make some exciting announcements concerning this year’s events.

The Shortlisted Artists
• Gina Czarnecki
• David Jacques
• James Quin
• Paul Rooney
• Emily Speed

The Judging Panel
In this, the 3rd year of the prize, we have another knowledgeable, experienced group of judges:
• Juan Cruz (Head of Arts Dept. JMU Art & Design Academy)
• Laura Davis (Arts Editor, Liverpool Daily Post)
• Reyahn King (Director of Art Galleries, National Museums Liverpool)
• Nicki McCubbing (Artist, shortlisted for 2009 Liverpool Art Prize)
• Jay Mitton (Business Manager, Arthur Diamond Design)
• Sara-Jayne Parsons (Exhibitions Curator, the Bluecoat)

New Venue
This year Artinliverpool are working in partnership with Metal. The exhibition will be taking place at the exciting new space for art, Metal at Edge Hill Station (the World’s oldest passenger railway station still in use).

The Exhibition
The 2010 exhibition opens on Friday 4 June (Viewing on 3 June) and ends on Saturday 10 July with the Awards Ceremony taking place on Wednesday 30 June.

The exhibition will be curated by Jenny Porter, the Project Manager at Metal.

The Prizes
The overall winner will be awarded £2000 plus (new from this year) the opportunity to exhibit their work at the Walker Art Gallery at a later date.
There will also be the £1000 People’s Choice Award (Sponsored by Arthur Diamond Design) chosen by the public voting at the gallery.

Ian Jackson, Director of Artinliverpool said “It’s another great shortlist of 5 Liverpool artists. We are really delighted with the year-on-year progress and excited about the move to Metal at Edge Hill. We had 2 excellent years at Novas Contemporary Urban Centre and are grateful for all the support they gave us. We know we will also have great support from Ian Brownbill, Jenny Porter and the rest of the team at Metal.

“It is also fantastic news that the Walker Art Gallery are offering a space for the Art Prize winner to show their work at some point later in the year. We are also working closely with the Bluecoat as their ‘Global Studios’ exhibition features many locally-based artists and the other major venues and artist studios are all keen to be involved in some way.”

About the Shortlisted Artists

Gina Czarnecki
Gina Czarnecki is a British artist whose work crosses multiple genres and platforms. Developed in collaboration with biotechnologists, computer programmers, dancers and sound artists, Czarnecki’s films and installations are informed by human relationships to image, disease, evolution, medical research, and by advanced technologies of image production. Through editing sound and image at a micro–level, using bespoke effects and processes, the artist constructs vivid, highly aesthetic spaces. Her work engages the viewer through its scale, beauty and occasionally through interactive technologies.

“Czarnecki’s craft is as intense as tapestry. Each phase and frame is carefully polished, reframed, filtered, flared, and each element of installation worked on in hands and mind… Few artists have made projection truly their medium, interrogated its possibilities, tuned image to canvas as Czarnecki has. The space of projection is a zone of sculptural, architectural, public space in which we confront images of power, grace and terror – images that speak of the necessity of being bodies, of the loneliness of existing inside an epidermis, of the ecstasy of pores and exhalations, the agonies of escape.” – Sean Cubitt (catalogue essay)

She won the prestigious Creative Scotland Award in 2002 for work on her interactive installation Silvers Alter, a Fleck Fellowship with the Banff Centre, Canada in 2004, and a Wellcome Trust Sci–Art Award in 2005 for production of Contagion. Her film, Nascent, has been screened extensively across the world, winning several awards and prizes. Czarnecki was recently awarded two research and development  grants by the Wellcome Trust , one for a three-year research residency at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the other for developing a body of works entitled ‘wasted’ with DR Sara Rankin, a stem cell researcher, from the Imperial College London

She is represented by Forma Arts and media www.forma.org.uk
http://www.ginaczarnecki.com/

David Jacques
Studied at Chelsea School of Art and Duncan of Jordanstone.
David Jacques works in a variety of media including painting, film and text.
He has produced studio based work as well as collaborative projects in the Public Realm.

Recent exhibitions include:
Contemporary Art Norwich EAST International 09
Northern Print Biennale, Newcastle
Trafo Gallery, Budapest, Hungary ‘EASTgoesEAST’
Royal College of Art, London ‘Por Convencion Ferrer’

http://davidjacques.co.uk/

James Quin
James Quin is based in the studios at Liverpool’s Bluecoat.
‘Looking at these paintings I feel I have the same relationship to them as I might to the first-person narration of a novel or short story. I feel as though I am seeing these images through another’s eyes and understand something of the “narrator” by the way he describes his world. In this sense part of the subject of the painting curiously exists out of the picture frame.

A further analogy is that of film - these paintings have characters, artificial stage sets, locations, vantage points, camera angles, close-ups and dissolves, long shots, implied narratives, and they play with the viewers gaze’. (From essay by Christopher Jones)

In James Quin’s most recent work for the Bluecoat’s Global Studio exhibition he takes some of the interests described here into new territory but his intentions remain resolutely consistent.  Quin is showing a group of 500 drawings on the inside covers of first edition readers digest condensed novels found in charity shops across Merseyside. Quin has attempted to make each drawing identical to the first of the series. The image is a disarmingly understated one, the back of a woman’s head. However, the nature of Quin’s examination of it, lend the images he creates a psychological distance that is familiar from the earlier paintings.

Paul Rooney
Artist Paul Rooney was born in Liverpool in 1967, and trained at Edinburgh College of Art. Paul’s practice focused from 1997 to 2000 on the music of the ‘Rooney’ CD’s and performances, with ‘Rooney’ achieving an appearance in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1998, and a ‘Peel session’ in 1999. Paul now primarily works with text, sound and video, often focusing on the presence of the historical past within the ‘voices’ of real and fictional individuals. He uses or references narrative forms such as short stories, songs, audio guides and lectures.

Paul has had residencies at Dundee Contemporary Arts/University of Dundee VRC; Proyecto Batiscafo, Cuba; Tate Liverpool (MOMART Fellowship) and was the ACE Oxford-Melbourne Artist Fellow for 2004. He has shown recently in group projects at Tate Britain, London; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Kunst-Werke, Berlin; the Shanghai Biennial; and Tate Liverpool. Paul was included in British Art Show 6 which toured around the UK in 2005-2006, and had solo shows at Matt’s Gallery, London, and Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, in 2008. Text artworks by Paul were published recently by Serpent’s Tail and Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press.

Paul was the winner of the second Northern Art Prize in 2009.

Emily Speed
Emily Speed is based at The Royal Standard studios in Liverpool. Her work is an ongoing exploration into the relationships between architecture and human anatomy: the body as a building that houses the mind. Particularly drawn to the more uninhabited spaces of buildings; corners, recesses, passageways, stairways, entrances and exits, Speed constructs models of sorts; a kind of immaterial architecture that plots out her personal space. Her work is also concerned with the enduring sense of memory and/or personal identity that is often embedded into built space.

Emily is currently the Feiweles Trust bursary holder at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where she will exhibit her work in 2011 for her first solo exhibition, she will also exhibit this autumn at Showreel Project in Milan. Emily will be taking part in the A Curriculum residency at A Foundation in Liverpool this spring and has previously completed residencies at Salzamt Atelierhaus, Linz with Liverpool Biennial, Women’s Studio Workshop, New York State and Hospitalfield Trust, Arbroath.
www.emilyspeed.co.uk

Confirmed Sponsors (as at 8 March)

Arthur Diamond Design, signs, designs and printing based in Liverpool, sponsors of the £1000 people’s choice prize and printing of leaflets and banners.

Alexander McGregor, design and marketing based in Liverpool, in-kind sponsorship design and production of the exhibition catalogue and branding.

We are delighted that Liverpool-based ABW architects have now pledged sponsorship for 2010.

Another new sponsor for 2010 is The Gallery Liverpool

Photography for the Catalogue and other Media by McCoy Wynne

Contact
www.liverpoolartprize.com has full details about the artists and exhibition.
See also http://www.metalculture.com

• Half a million pound prize fund for Britain’s best business ideas
• Best business idea in the North West will win £50,000
• Barclays Business Bus will visit Liverpool, 23rd April

Barclays Business is on the hunt for Britain’s best business ideas, whether it’s new businesses or an existing business with a new idea.

From mid-March until the end of July, Barclays will be running a competition to reward ten regional winners with prizes of £50,000 each to get their ideas off the ground.

Whether they’re looking to start a brand new business, manufacture new products, or expand into new markets, entrants can enter to win one of ten regional prizes of £50,000. A panel of expert judges, including celebrity and business icons, will shortlist the three best business ideas per region. With Barclays’ support, each shortlisted entrant will canvas their community, galvanising local support to encourage the public to vote for them.

Then it’s over to the public to choose the overall winner of their region during May, with the winners to be announced in July.

As part of the competition, Barclays will be offering advice to hundreds of potential business owners and existing businesses on how to realise their business ambitions. Taking its expertise to the road, the Barclays Business bus will travel across the UK on a tour to give advice on how local business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs can take their ideas and put them into action. The bus will be visiting the streets of Liverpool on 23rd April.

To take part in the competition, entrants can go online to www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk and fill in an application form, or make an application video to bring their ideas to life

A Liverpool company boss today called on the region’s chemical companies to celebrate their successes by entering the upcoming Chemicals Northwest Awards 2010.

With the awards officially open for entries, businesses in the local area are being urged to take part in this year’s awards, which showcase the world-class chemical companies in the region.

Ian Meadows, chair of R S Clare, said: “Effort can be taken for granted or it can be justly rewarded with a credible accolade.

“So we at RS Clare are delighted to have won the Chemicals North West SME of the Year award in 2009 in recognition for our efforts and would encourage others to enter.

“The award is tangible evidence of our ability to provide quality products and services to our varied markets.

“It serves to inspire us further and to justly recognise employees for their continued commitment. Because that is what it really is - a total people award.

“The award itself is doubly rewarding because we achieved it during difficult economic times globally. This serves to demonstrate our resilience and to encourage us to achieve ever greater improvements.

“RS Clare aims to set a high standard in everything we do to ensure we continue to provide the best for our stakeholders at all times.

“Achieving high standards is not something that happens by accident. It is the culmination of systematic effort from all our people.”

The chemical industry in the Northwest is the largest chemical producing area in the country and includes 650 companies which employ more than 50,000 people.

These companies are now being invited to participate in the Chemicals Northwest Awards which will culminate with a prestigious dinner at the Midland Hotel, Manchester on Thursday May 20 2010.

There will be nine exciting categories that will highlight the achievements of the chemical sector in the region which are:

• Innovation - Product or Process
• Sustainable Manufacturing
• Environmental Technology for the Chemical Industry
• Investor in Training
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• International Trade
• Service Provider
• Young Achiever in the NW Chemical Sector
• Chemicals Northwest Company of the Year  

For more details about entering the awards or attending the awards dinner and the Chemical Elements event please call Alex Heys on 01928 515678 or email alex.heys@chemicalsnorthwest.org.uk  Alternatively please visit www.chemicalsnorthwest.org.uk

For more information about Chemicals Northwest, please visit: www.chemicalsnorthwest.org.uk

North West Regional Construction Awards 2010
Submission Deadline 8th February

The deadline for submissions for the North West Regional Construction Awards 2010 has been extended to Monday 8th February. 

The Awards celebrate the North West Construction  Industry and showcase the best and most innovative construction projects and working practices in the region.  Awards are made in seventeen categories and the winners will go forward to the National  Construction Awards.

Previous winners include Willmott Dixon Construction, Freemont R & R, Donald Insall Associates, Liverpool City Council, Conlon Construction, Blackpool Coastal Housing, Manchester City Council Capital Programme Division and Cleveleys Coast Protection Scheme.

Now in its 4th Year, NW Regional Construction Award winners achieve great publicity and are automatically put forward for the National Constructing Excellence Awards.

Entries are invited for the following categories:

• Skills & Education - Company Award
• Local People, Local Jobs Award
• Places for People (Infrastructure) Award
• Equality and Diversity in Construction Award
• Carbon Reduction – Company Award
• Environmental Sustainability (Quality of Life) Award
• Business Award
• Heritage Award
• Regional Construction Best Practice Club Awards
• Contractor of the Year Award
• SME of the Year Award
• Client of the Year Award
• Project of the Year Award 

Entries will also be put forward to Constructing Excellence for their Demonstration Project programme. Becoming a Demonstration Project will help raise the profile of your organisation and enable you to participate in a learning and sharing network of forward-thinking organisations.

Key Dates:
Extended Deadline for Submissions: 8 February 2010

Awards Ceremony - 27 May 2010, Southport Theatre & Convention Centre

Entry Process:
All you need to do is complete an application form for the category you wish to enter.

The application form for the 2010 North West Regional Construction Awards is available to download from the CCI website!

The application process has been overhauled for 2010 to make it easier for entrants to apply.   Follow the easy steps to submit your entry, if you do require further assistance please contact Vicky Hutchinson or Emma Kyng on 0161 295 5076 or email nwca@ccinw.com.

Download your application form here. [XLS]

A Liverpool Chamber computer support company has been Highly Commended in the National Customer Service Awards 2009.

The PC Support Group, which has its head office in Waterloo and delivers IT help to small businesses and home users across the UK, was praised for the Best Use of Technology in Customer Service. It was also highly commended for recognising where technology has directly improved customer service delivery.

Phil Bird, managing director, said: “As businesses from any industry can enter, it is a huge honour to gain recognition for the computer support industry, an area not exactly renowned for great customer service.

“We have invested a massive amount of time and effort into our systems and processes to provide outstanding customer service so it is fantastic that this has been recognised by a prestigious panel of experts. It doesn’t mean we can sit back and relax though - we aim to get even better.”

The National Customer Service Awards celebrate the effort and impact of excellent customer service for the customer and business.

The renew, reuse and recycle message has been adopted by Liverpool’s artistic community for Liverpool Chamber’s environmental art competition.

Following the launch, the Chamber’s judges have been impressed with the standard of the work submitted. The competition was created to encourage professional artists and designers from across the region to create art from recycled materials. The theme of the competition is Reduce Reuse, Recycle, the three key processes for creating a more sustainable environment.

One of the items entered has been created by local designer Ilsa Parry, currently featuring on Design for Life on BBC2. The funky light fitting is made up of aluminium swarth produced when engineers machine items on a lathe. Ilsa explained: “The swarth product represents how one man’s junk can be another man’s treasure, simply by changing its context.”

Maresa Molloy, Head of Policy and Information at Liverpool Chamber said:

“We have already seen some through provoking and stunning designs, however there is still time to create something amazing and enter the competition. The closing date for entries is 31 October.”

Selected entries will be exhibited at the Chamber’s Annual Dinner on 26th November. The winning entry will receive £500, there will be a £250 prize for the runner up.

The competition is free to enter. Professional artists, living or working in the Merseyside area wishing to enter can download an application form from the Chamber’s website www.liverpoolchamber.org.uk/art-award.html

Do you know any young entrepreneurs (aged 16-30) that need funding for their business?

If so, Shell LiveWIRE currently has the following two awards competitions open for entry at www.shell-livewire.org/awards

£10,000 Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009 (deadline for entries - 11th September)

This prestigious award recognises the brightest new business talent by offering young entrepreneurs aged 16-30 in their first 18 months of trading with;

• A £10,000 cash prize for their business
• Significant publicity and media coverage coordinated by a top award winning PR agency
• External recognition and credibility for your business
• Highlighted profile through the Shell LiveWIRE website

Previous winners include successful entrepreneurs such as James Murray-Wells from GlassesDirect.co.uk, Stewart Graham from Gael Force Group, Lucy Cohen from Mazuma Money and James Watt from BrewDog to name but a few.

To find out more visit: www.shell-livewire.org/news/award2009

£1,000 Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards (Monthly)

New for 2009, our Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards competition offers up to
5 prizes of £1,000 each month for innovative new business ideas and projects.

If you’re a young entrepreneur (aged 16-30) within the first 6 months of trading and think you’ve got an innovative new product or service, or an unusual idea for marketing, promoting or launching your business we want to hear from you!

For recent winners go to: www.shell-livewire.org/news/awardwinners-june

Liverpool Chamber of Commerce is launching an environmentally focused art competition, as part of Liverpool’s Year of the Environment 2009.

The Green Art competition is designed to encourage professional artists from across the region to create art from recycled materials. The theme of the competition is Reduce Reuse Recycle, the three key processes for creating a more sustainable environment.

Maresa Molloy, Head of Policy and Information at Liverpool Chamber will be judging the competition along with Cllr Berni Turner and a member of Liverpool’s art community. Maresa commented: “Liverpool Chamber is keen to see the support for the arts that brought the city capital of culture and made the year such a success carried on through the year of the environment.

“We hope to see some thought provoking pieces that will inspire individuals or businesses to examine their impact on the environment and perhaps change their behaviour.”

Selected entries will be exhibited at the Chamber’s Annual Dinner on 26th November. The winning entry will receive £500, presented by Marks & Spencer chief executive Sir Stuart Rose, guest speaker at the Annual Dinner.

There will be a £250 prize for the runner up.

The competition is free to enter, professional artists, living or working in the Merseyside area wishing to enter can download an application form from the Chamber’s website.

Hill Dickinson Celebrates Win at Law Society Awards

Liverpool Chamber Patrons Hill Dickinson is celebrating success at this year’s Liverpool Law Society Legal Awards after scooping the Employment Team of the Year title.

The firm’s success was particularly significant as the coveted Legal Awards received a record number of entries this year, across a wide spectrum of firms.

Commenting on the win, Hill Dickinson Managing Partner, Peter Jackson said: “In a year which has seen us expand our international horizons, we are proud to be recognised by the legal industry in Liverpool for our hard work and dedication.”

Hill Dickinson Employment & Pensions Partner, Robert Coward attended the awards ceremony and said, “This win underlines the expertise demonstrated by our lawyers and is testament to the fact we have an exceptional team that is committed to providing outstanding client service.”

Created to celebrate legal excellence in the region, the bi-annual Legal Awards were held on Saturday 27th June at Liverpool’s Crowne Plaza Hotel and attracted a broad range of firms.