COVENTRY.- Gallery 4 at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is currently an empty open space of blank white walls and silence waiting for the artistic people of Coventry, Warwickshire and the West Midlands to make their mark and enter the Coventry Open 2010.

Coventry Open 2010 takes place from 2 April until 13 June and is open to all artists living in the West Midlands and Warwickshire, it offers the rare opportunity to have work exhibited in a renowned gallery.

Senior Exhibitions and Events Officer Rosie Addenbrooke said "An empty gallery is a really eerie space. Walls of a gallery are usually covered with interesting paintings and objects for visitors to look at so to look at sparse white walls with no idea of what's going to fill them is slightly un-nerving. At the moment these walls are the blank canvas for the Coventry Open 2010 and all they need is people's inspiration and vision to create a brand new, never seen before exhibition. It's actually quite exciting".

The exhibition is open to all West Midlands and Warwickshire artists working in any medium, including painting, drawing, print, sculpture, textiles, photography and film. After submission, work for the exhibition is then selected by a panel of judges; this year's expert panel is made up of artist, John Keane whose work can be seen in the Herbert, fine art and photography course leader at Wolverhampton University, Su Fahy, and exhibitions officer at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Karen MacKinnon. There is a prize of £1000 awarded by the judges to the overall winner and a Visitor Choice Prize of a solo exhibition will be offered to the artist receiving the most votes from visitors to the exhibition.

Artists can submit up to three pieces to the Herbert for consideration on Saturday 20 March from 10am until 4.30pm, terms and conditions apply. To download the entry form and the conditions of entry please visit the Coventry Open 2010 page at www.theherbert.org.