Gary Neville asks students to ‘think outside the box’ for Hotel Football artwork

Gary came to the University of Salford to offer art and design students the opportunity to produce tailor-made images which will grace the walls of public areas of the luxury hotel he set up next to his former Old Trafford home.

He urged students to think as creatively as possible and make pieces of art – from drawings and paintings to photographs and textile pieces – representing the national game.

The pieces will be hand-picked by the footballer along with a panel of judges before being put up in the hotel, lobby and bar areas early next year – where they will be seen by thousands of visitors.

This is the second time University of Salford students has been invited to create original pieces of art for the hotel. More than 70 hand-selected pieces were put up in bedrooms, Café Football and the Stadium Suite shortly after the building opened in 2015 – while designs were also chosen to feature on T-shirts worn by staff as part of their uniform.

Gary Neville said: “It’s something that worked very well last time. I still see the artwork we chose from the original competition and there’s some great pieces there. I hope we get the same passion from the students and at the same time we kick start their confidence and their belief in themselves. 

“It’s a great opportunity for the students and it’s absolutely right that we give them that opportunity. We’re looking for humour, imagination, inspiration, and artists not thinking about football in a straightforward way.”

Students were also invited to create pieces of original artwork for a range of organisations across Greater Manchester as part of the ‘Live Brief’ event at the University’s Peel Hall.

This includes working with the Acute Pennine Hospital Trust’s bereavement services team to create a memorial to patients who have died at Salford Royal Hospital, designing a catalogue cover for Timperley-based international wine merchant C&O Wines.

They are also being invited to create artwork which will be judged by a panel including Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Julie Fawcett, CEO of The Lowry, to appear on the walls of the University’s Mary Seacole Building – used to train nurses, midwives and counsellors.

Sam Ingleson, Senior Lecturer in Art at the University, said: “Having your work judged by Gary Neville and potentially put up on display at one of Greater Manchester’s most prestigious hotels is a fantastic opportunity for a young artist, and this is a brilliant example of how we provide our students with real world experience of working to professional briefs.”