We are delighted to celebrate the success of Bethany pupil, Georgie, who has been shortlisted for the prestigious UCA YouCreate: Weird Competition 2026 in the Years 11–13 and FE category. This is a fantastic achievement, as the competition attracts a wide range of high-quality entries from across the region.

Georgie’s artwork impressed the judges with its creativity, originality and technical skill, earning a well-deserved place on the shortlist and the chance to win one of the top prizes. As part of this recognition, Georgie’s work will be displayed at a special exhibition at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury, where it will be viewed by industry professionals and members of the public. Winners will be announced at the exhibition opening event in July.

Georgie said:

“I created this piece of work inspired by the theme ‘Weird’. My stimulus was how I find beauty standards very weird. I created this message with the combination of mirrors and latex. The latex symbolises the prosthetic and false identity we have to succumb to, in order to live up to unrealistic standards. To make the piece personal and individual, I made the background out of mirrors. The mirrors allow you to see yourself within the work, which is something that I really like, as it connects the audience with the message and brings you to ‘face yourself’. The imperfection of the latex faces really stands out to me as it pushes the message that no matter how hard we try to be ‘perfect’ we will still have imperfections and flaws. Overall, this piece was really interesting to make as I developed skills and explored many different elements that brought everything together.”

Congratulations, Georgie, we can’t wait to see what’s next!