Pride of St Helens - Arts Award nominees

In last Thursday's paper (in shops now) we published a 16-page supplement profiling each of the shortlisted nominees for this year's ceremony.

Throughout this week ahead of the event at the Totally Wicked Stadium, we will be sharing our categories of nominees with you.

Here are your nominees for Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group Pride of St Helens Award - Arts Award category, sponsored by Imperial Arts Bar & Terrace.

Dom Cummings

Dom Cummings (Image: Dom Cummings)

AFTER falling in love with the world of musical theatre during lockdown, Dom Cummings stumbled upon his new favourite musical, the Phantom of the Opera.

Learning that this was also his late nan’s favourite musical, it took on a new meaning for Dom, who immersed himself in the musical theatre world and self taught himself all the necessary skills to perform on stage.

With a new found love of musical theatre after lockdown ended, Dom applied to study musical performance and theatre at Cowley sixth-form college, where he dazzled in the main roles of numerous productions.

While still a student at Cowley, the budding performer also bagged himself a leading role on the West End earlier this year, on ‘This Girl – The Cynthia Lennon story’.

After spending a week amazing audiences and Beatles fanatics in London, Dom shared his success story with the Star and the BBC, to encourage others to follow a similar path, and has since progressed to study music theatre at UCLAN.

Committed to learning as much as he can at university, Dom is determined to succeed to make his family, friends, teachers, and St Helens proud with his future roles and career.

Mike Clarke

WITH his films being recognised at film festivals across the world, Mike Clarke has forged himself an impressive career in the entertainment industry.

Learning the art of filmmaking in his teenage years, Mike was first recognised by critics in the 1990s with his selection of short films.

After a brief hiatus from creating, Mike returned to his passion in 2013 and has since had his hand in eight independent films that have attracted great acclaim.

One of his most recent creations, ‘A Light Through Coloured Glass’, won more than 30 awards across global independent film festivals, in categories such as ‘Best Drama Film’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Production’.

Mike’s horror film ‘The Stranger’ was also picked up by Amazon Prime in America, while upcoming flicks ‘Squeeze’ and ‘Student Loans’ are highly anticipated.

While Mike’s work has been recognised across the globe, he has never forgotten his St Helens roots and many of his productions have been filmed in the region or contain a sense of northern grit and determination.

Frequently showcasing his releases in the town’s independent cinema Lucem House, Mike also featured as part of St Helens’ Borough of Culture this year for a live Q&A session following the showing of ‘A Light through Coloured Glass’.

Jamie Stockley

Jamie Stockley (Image: Jamie Stockley)

DESPITE pursuing a unique and creative career choice, an animator and artist has drawn up a successful future that has now come “full circle”.

After studying graphic design and IT at Carmel College, Jamie Stockley was encouraged to follow his side passion of animation - in spite of his concern about a lack of local jobs in the field.

Deciding to follow his artistic passion, Haydock based Jamie has gone on to work on many highly-rated animation shows, such as Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, Roary the Racing Car, and the BAFTA-winning Clangers.

Gaining years of experience in stop-motion animation and puppet making, Jamie has now risen to become an Art Director at Altrincham-based Factory Create; a highly-respectable animation studio that has contributed to countless shows and series.

More recently, Jamie has also been freelancing his art and ‘doodles’ for a range of commercial and residential clients around the North West, such as Halloween and Christmas displays as well as large-scale business murals.

And after forging his own artistic path, Jamie has been giving talks at his old college and university to encourage more people into the creative industries - and has also been featured in the World of Glass’ ‘Creative Roots’ exhibition which celebrates the work and achievements of local residents.