Young Creative Chevrolet (YCC) Winners Celebrate the Art of Football at Memorable Manchester Event

MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM – October 24, 2013: To honor the top winners of pan-European art and design contest Young Creative Chevrolet (YCC) 2013, Chevrolet will host an invitation-only event which joins up two seemingly unrelated passions: art and football. The YCC 2013 award festivities will be held on October 25-27, 2013 in Manchester, U.K., and bring together European YCC winners and special guests for a unique program designed around the YCC 2013 creative theme, the global phenomenon of football. The contest theme was originally inspired by Chevrolet's increased support of football and its fans through sponsorship of U.K. Premier League teams Manchester United and Liverpool FC, the U.S. Soccer Federation and the ambitious One World Futbol Project.

YCC winners fęted

To set the mood for the weekend, the 21 European YCC 2013 winners and special guests – including the creative leaders comprising the European YCC 2013 jury – will first go on a private tour of Old Trafford, the fabled home ground of Premier League champions Manchester United. Former star player and Manchester United "Legend" Denis Irwin, who played with the club from 1990 to 2002, will join the tour and attend YCC Award Night.

The festivities officially begin with Chevrolet Photo Night, an art-centric event held at Dukes 92, the festive canal-side venue that harkens back to Manchester’s industrial past. Chevrolet Europe Communications Director Vijay Iyer will present awards to the European YCC 2013 winners in Fashion, Photography, Video and Visual Arts. Iyer remarks: "We are especially proud of this year’s winners, who responded to the creative briefs with verve and energy, reflecting the true football-fan experience. It’s always inspiring to see how young artists and designers approach the Chevrolet brand and, in this case, our support of football fans around the world."

Photography in the spotlight

As part of Chevrolet Photo Night, guests will also be treated to a thought-provoking panel discussion with acclaimed photographers Stuart Roy Clarke, Peter Dench, Jocelyn Bain Hogg and James O. Jenkins. Television presenter Claire Smith will facilitate Street Photography: Art, Sociology or Good Timing? which aims to shed light on one of the most interesting and least understood genres of photography, street photography. Anticipated topics range from the philosophical – the meaning of street photography to society and the photographer – to the practical, covering technique, technology and ethics.

Vijay Iyer, Director Communications at Chevrolet Europe, notes: “Just as Chevrolet has always been about discovery and finding new paths, figuratively and literally, street photography is about the quest to capture the unexpected in everyday life.”

Chevrolet Europe President and Managing Director Thomas Sedran adds: “Photography plays a key role for any successful global consumer brand, but especially for an iconic car brand such as Chevrolet. From the highly stylized to the gritty and authentic, photography has been vital to documenting our past and creating meaningful connections with people everywhere.”

Football in focus

On the second day of the program, YCC winners and special guests will delve into street photography within the context of the world’s most popular football club, Manchester United. The esteemed panelists will conduct hands-on workshops around documenting the authentic fan experience at a Premier League match (Manchester United vs. Stoke City).

Panelist and workshop leader Stuart Roy Clarke looks forward to returning to one of his favorite settings with the group. A football fan himself, he has observed: “Football offers escapism, but also a realism, across people’s lives that they don’t get elsewhere. It makes them feel more real, more alive than anything else. Being at one with complete strangers; not knowing your fellow supporter but rooting for the same team. It’s a vigil and a struggle of life, because most of the teams aren’t going to win anything. I think it’s character building. But that doesn’t mean to say I can’t see the ridiculousness of it a lot of the time” (interview, Oh Comely, July 2013).

To close out the YCC 2013 award festivities, Clarke will give a private guided tour of his ambitious Homes of Football exhibition at the National Football Museum.

Student work showcased

European YCC 2013 winners in the Photography and Visual Arts disciplines will enjoy additional exposure in Manchester. The top-placing photograph of Juraj Holček of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava will appear in the official Manchester United game program on October 26, 2013. In another high-profile placement, the winning Visual Arts team of Ján Bača and Jan Šlégr from Tomas Bata University in Zlín will travel to Manchester early in order to bring their winning fan-transporter concept to life. Two Chevrolet Orlandos will be transformed by the duo’s "United Emotions" design – which incorporates authentic fan anthems – and exhibited in front of the awards venue, Dukes 92.