On March 9, the jury meeting for the JugendKunstTriennale 2024, which the city of Hof is hosting this year, took place in the foyer of the Große Haus der Freiheitshalle.

Back in autumn 2023, the cities of Chemnitz, Bayreuth, Hof, Marktredwitz, Plauen and Zwickau invited artists aged 14 to 18 and 19 to 25 to take part in the most important cultural project of the Saxon-Bavarian city network.

At the end of February, the works could be submitted to the respective cities to be presented to the six-member jury. The jury members Hans-Hubertus Esser (Bayreuth), Juliana Wagner (Marktredwitz), Annika Weise (Zwickau), Nadine Rothe (Chemnitz), Bernd Rössler (Hof) and Thomas Beurich (Plauen) took a day to view, discuss and evaluate the almost 440 submissions from 276 artists.

Bernd Rössler, chairman of the jury and representative of the city of Hof, says: "The jury is very aware that behind every work submitted is an enormous achievement and also the hope of the young artist to win a prize. We tried to deal with this responsibly; we thought carefully and discussed a lot in order to find the best among the many great works. It is impressive to see how much creative potential is at home in the region."

After seven hours, the four main prize winners, two sponsorship award winners and 20 commendations were announced.

Peter Nürmberger, Head of the City of Hof's Department of Culture, who accompanied the jury meeting, summarized: "The variety of submissions did not make it easy for the jury; there was a lot of controversial discussion and thorough consideration. We can all be very excited about the exhibition."

One main prize - endowed with 500 euros each - goes to Chemnitz, three go to Zwickau. In Chemnitz and Zwickau, the sponsorship award winners can look forward to 150 and 300 euros respectively, as well as an exhibition at Atelier Achtzehn in Selbitz-Weidesgrün.

The awards, each with a prize of 200 euros, were given to five artists from Bayreuth, four from Chemnitz, four from Hof, five from Plauen and two from Zwickau.

In addition, a further 102 large and small works in a wide variety of techniques have made it into the large exhibition and the catalog that will be published to accompany the exhibition.

The winners will be announced and honored at the opening of the exhibition on June 8, 2024 at 2 p.m. in the Freiheitshalle Hof. A cordial invitation is already being sent out.

The young talent competition is supported by Sparkassen Bayreuth, Hochfranken, Vogtland and Zwickau.