Portrait Artist of the Year Celebrities vs. Kids Special comes to Sky Arts

Sky Arts has announced a Portrait Artist of the Year Celebrities vs. Kids Special.

The one-off will broadcast on 21 June at 8PM to mark Access All Arts Week.

Presented by Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell, the special will see six celebrity artists produce portraits of three celebrated sitters.

But for the very first time, they’ll be painting alongside six primary school pupils – selected by Portrait Artist of The Year judges after hundreds of children submitted portraits of someone important to them at their school.

Battersea Arts Centre becomes a hive of artistic adventure, where alongside the portrait painting, internationally renowned artist David Shillinglaw creates a giant mural and children visit Craft Corner to create works of art in all sorts of mixed media. the programme aims to showcase all aspects of art to help inspire children across the country to pick up a paintbrush. At the end, one of the celebrities will be crowned Celebrity Portrait Artist Of The Year.

The celebrity artists are Nitin Ganatra (Actor), Anita Mangan (Illustrator), Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (Interior designer/television personality), Toyah Wilcox (Musician), Leigh Francis aka Keith Lemon (Comedian) and Gemma Cairney (Television presenter).

Joining them in the iconic sitter’s seats are Konnie Huq (Television presenter), Lee Ridley aka Lost Voice Guy (Comedian) and Chi-chi Nwanoku from Chineke! Orchestra (Musician).

The episode airs during Access All Arts Week, a nationwide arts week for primary schools developed by Sky Arts which runs between 19 and 23 June.

The 10th series of Portrait Artist of the Year will air later this year.