A BESPOKE piece of art celebrating Southampton's creative scene will be produced next year.

Southampton Sampler '17 is an exciting collaboration, bringing together musicians, visual artists and poets on a vinyl project.

A panel of industry experts, including Bestival and Common People founder and former Radio One DJ Rob da Bank and Band of Skulls bassist and singer Emma Richardson, who is also a highly-regarded artist, are ready to act as judges.

Alex Dance of Hightown Studios, where the project has been launched, told Your Entertainment: "The project aims to inspire and celebrate the huge swathes of talent within this city of ours. A lot of exciting projects are happening in Southampton at the moment and we want to be part of this positive movement."

The end product will form a ten track vinyl record, complete with local poetry on the insert and illustrations covering the sleeves.

Musicians are encouraged to send in their best original track. All bands or artists, of any genre, have to do is email their best track to performers@socomusicproject.org.uk by January 30.

In turn, this track will be shortlisted and then judged by the independent panel, which also includes saxophonist, composer and educator Dan Mar-Molinero and BBC Introducing experts. Ten participants will be chosen by the panel and will have the chance to record their track at Hightown Studios to then be printed onto vinyl in the spring.

Hightown Studios are also reaching out to Southampton's visual artists, offering them the chance to help design the artwork for the vinyl gatefold. This is a collaborative ensemble of artwork of which 15 -20 pieces will make the cut.

Collating the artwork together will be the job of Chris Brigg, industry professional and Lecturer in Graphic Design at Southampton Solent University. Chris has created over 400 albums with the likes of The Pixies' notorious album, Pleasures. Chris Bigg will be accompanied by the students of Southampton Solent School of Art Design and Fashion to complete this effort. Artists are asked to email performers@socomusicproject.org.uk with either a photo or digital copy of their album artwork. Artwork should reflect Southampton's music scene.

An exhibition will be held in February to showcase the art produced.

For more information on the project, visit hightownstudios.org.uk

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