This week’s opportunities
Awards
The John Glover Art Prize (Glover Prize) is awarded for a landscape painting of Tasmania to a local, interstate or international artist. The winner receives $75,000 for the acquisitive prize, with all entries eligible for the People’s Choice Award, the Children’s Choice Award and the Hanger’s Choice Award. The entered work should be a landscape painting of Tasmania, but does not have to have been painted in Tasmania. Landscape painting is defined in its broadest sense. The aim is to stimulate conversations about the meaning and possibilities expressed in the words “landscape”, “painting” and “Tasmania”.
Entries close 26 January 2024; learn more and enter.
2024 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize
Artists across Australia are invited to enter the 2024 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize with all media accepted and an open theme. Artists are asked to enter an artwork that best reflects their art practice. The awards include a $35,000 Professional Art Prize, a $5000 Indigenous Emerging Artist Prize and a $5000 Emerging Artist Prize. There is also a People’s Choice Award consisting of $2000 and a $500 Derivan art pack.
Entries close 14 February 2024; learn more and enter.
2024 Australian Small Business Champion Awards
Entries have opened to the 2024 Australian Small Business Champion Awards that celebrates the achievements and considerable economic, social and cultural contribution of the millions of small business operators from right across the country. The Awards features more than 100 categories, including categories in performance arts-based services, as well as special spotlight categories – Business of the Decade, Small Business Young Entrepreneur (aged 30 and younger), Small Business Entrepreneur (aged over 30) and the 2024 Growth Award.
Entries close 15 February 2024; learn more and enter.
The Hope Prize celebrates themes of hope, courage and resilience with a $10,000 first prize and the highly commended submissions to be included in published anthology by Simon & Schuster Australia. The Hope Prize is open to writers over 18 from all walks of life, regardless of background or experience. It welcomes short submissions between 2000 and 5000 words in either fiction or non-fiction.
Submissions close 22 March 2024; learn more and submit.
Commissions
Melbourne First Nations arts festival, YIRRAMBOI, is bringing back its YIRRAMBOI Commissions alongside the International Collaborative Commissions with the focus nation, Canada. YIRRAMBOI Commissions invites First Nations creatives, collectives, community groups and arts organisations based in Victoria to submit an Expression of Interest, which will see the festival’s Advisory Group and leadership team select five works and provide each successful project with $18,000 in creative development and $18,000 in presentation support, totalling $36,000. Projects may be at any stage of development, though must be fully realised for presentation by May 2025.
EOIs close 9 February 2024; learn more and apply.
The International Collaborative Commissions are inviting Australian First Nations and Canadian First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists to create new intercultural work to have its world premiere at YIRRAMBOI 2025. Creatives may submit as an existing collaborative relationship with a project or concept, or as an individual with a project concept seeking a collaborator. A collaborative partnership between an artist/group in Australia and artist/group in Canada will then be curated if successful. Two International Collaborative Commissions will be selected by a panel of arts leaders from Australia and Canada alongside the YIRRAMBOI leadership team and awarded AU$18,000 for creative development and AU$18,000 for travel across development in both countries and presentation, totalling AU$36,000.
EOIs close 14 January 2024; learn more and apply.
Grants and funding
City of Yarra Round Two Arts and Culture Annual Grants (Vic)
This stream of grant funding supports the creation and presentation of arts and cultural projects, activities and works within the City of Yarra. Their vision is for arts and culture to be integrated into the City of Yarra so that they can be an everyday experience and be enjoyed by the community, whether as makers, audience members or participants.
Applications close 22 January 2024; learn more and apply.
Australian and New Zealand art music composers are invited to apply for a $7500 Art Music Fund grant to help them make new musical works a reality. Eleven grants will be allocated to nine Australian and two New Zealand composers, respectively. The Art Music Fund, now in its ninth funding round, is an initiative of APRA AMCOS, in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.
Applications close 13 February 2024; learn more and apply.
Regional Arts Touring funding 2023/24 (NSW)
Regional Arts Touring funding supports tours that provide access to arts and culture for audiences living in regional NSW. Provided by Create NSW, the funding is available for tours of all art forms, including performing arts, music, visual arts, literature, history, museums and multi-arts. Applicants should demonstrate strong audience development and engagement strategies.
Applications close 26 February 2024; learn more and apply.
Call-outs
You Look Good. On Paper. (Vic)
RED Gallery’s 2024 group exhibition You Look Good. On Paper. is calling for artists to submit their artworks to be considered for curation into the show in June 2024. All works on paper that fit within the 80-centimetre by 80-centimetre size requirement are welcome.
Entries close 1 February 2024; learn more and enter.
Professional development
2024 Boundless Indigenous Writer’s Mentorship Program (NSW)
Writing NSW and Text Publishing present the 2024 Boundless Indigenous Writer’s Mentorship, with support from Booktopia and the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN). The mentorship is awarded annually to an unpublished Indigenous writer who has made substantial progress on a work of fiction or non-fiction. The intention of the program is to support the writer to develop their manuscript and to facilitate a pathway to publication. The program will pair an emerging Indigenous writer from anywhere in Australia with a senior Indigenous writer for a structured year-long mentorship.
Applications close 26 November; learn more and apply.
Q Theatre Originate residency (NSW)
Originate is Q Theatre Company’s hallmark project, a six-month theatre training program for pre-professional and emerging artists aged over 18 and wanting to build skills, engage in a rigorous ensemble-based performance practice and take the next step in pursuing a career in the performing arts. Originate participants build their performance skills through training, experimentation, collaboration and creative problem-solving. The program culminates in a theatre production performed live on stage at The Joan in Penrith and connects young artists with a world of creative career pathways and possibilities.
Applications close 15 December; learn more and apply.
CultureLAB and The Warehouse Residency (Vic)
Two opportunities are open at Arts House. CultureLAB is a development program that supports independent artists, collectives and small/medium organisations to create new work. The Warehouse Residency is Arts House’s main commissioning pathway for d/Deaf and Disability led projects developed at North Melbourne Town Hall. Now in its third year, Arts House is thrilled to partner with Arts Centre Melbourne through Alter State. Selected projects receive fees, studio time/space and professional development opportunities.
EOIs close 23 January 2024; learn more and apply.
The Lady Mollie Isabelle Askin Ballet Scholarship
The Lady Mollie Isabelle Askin Ballet Scholarship was established by a Deed of Lady Mollie Askin to further culture and advance education in Australia by providing a travelling scholarship for Australian citizens with outstanding ability and promise in ballet. The scholarship is awarded biennially to a candidate who has outstanding ability and shows promise in ballet. The scholarship is worth $30,000, payable in two instalments of $15,000 over two years.
Applications close 6 February 2024; learn more and apply.
First Draft with Rachael Mead (SA)
Are you looking for professional support and a strong peer network to help you start or finish your book or refine your first draft? If you’re working on a first draft or have a draft that just isn’t working, Writers SA’s First Draft program can help you shape your novel and stay on track. This series is facilitated by Rachael Mead with fortnightly in-person group meetings starting 14 February 2024.
Meeting dates 14, 28 February, 12, 27 March, 10, 24 April and 8, 22 May 2024; learn more and register.
Want more? Visit our Opportunities page for more open competitions, prizes, EOIs and call-outs.
This week’s winners
Visual arts
Australian interdisciplinary fashion brand, INJURY, has been celebrated at ASVOFF (A Shaded View of Fashion), the world’s first fashion, culture and film festival, held in Paris this year. INJURY’s film 0000 has been honoured with the Best Advertising award. INJURY’s design duo Eugene Leung and Dan Tse tell with ArtsHub: ‘This award holds special significance for us, not only as Australian fashion designers, digital artists and filmmakers gaining recognition on the international stage, but also as individuals as artists who have poured our hearts and souls into this unconventional approach to visual storytelling, for a fashion brand especially.’ INJURY is a Sydney-based initiative founded by Leung, who tests the boundaries of fashion, music, CG films, digital fashion and art collectibles. In 2021, they created the first 100% CGI (computer generated imagery) Fashion Show, The Butterfly’s Dream, which marked their fashion film trilogy. 0000 is a sequel to films The Butterfly’s Dream and Rare Reality, and is set in a world that presents a delicate balance between the familiar and the otherworldly. View the film on YouTube.
Winners of the Head On Photo Awards were announced at this year’s festival launch on 10 November, across the categories Portrait, Environmental, Landscape and Student. David Cossini’s portrait Ugandan Ssebabi, previously selected as the art handlers’ favourite at the 2023 National Photography Portrait Prize, took home another accolade, as overall winner in the Head On Portrait category. Landscape winner was Talia Greis for Underwater Garden, taken in the depth of Mexico’s rainforests. In the Environmental category, the overall winner was Alain Schroeder’s Saving orangutans 1, a work that captures the heart-wrenching consequences of rainforest depletion for orangutans. Lucia St Leon took home the Head On Student Award with a dynamic play on light and darkness in Paper constructs. View the full list of winning works and runners-up. The Head On Photo Festival is on now across Sydney, check out the program.
Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta and Boon Wurrung/Wemba Wemba woman, Maree Clarke, has been awarded the major $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2023. Clarke has been acknowledged for her instrumental role in the reclamation of south-east Australian Aboriginal art practices and for being a pivotal figure in Victoria’s arts scene since the 1990s. Clarke’s public art, sculpture, painting and multimedia installations of painting and photography explore the customary ceremonies, rituals and language of her ancestors. Kent Morris, Vipoo Srivilasa and Joy Zhou were also among this year’s finalists, judged by Emily Floyd, Kate Ten Buuren and Katharina Prugger.
The 2023 Ocean Photographer of the Year winner is macro and blackwater photographic specialist, Jialing Cai, from Chongqing, China. The photo of a paper nautilus shell in the waters of Batangas Bay, Philippines was taken after the Taal Volcano eruption. Cai is a Evolutionary Biology student at Columbia University and her work is exhibiting alongside other finalists in the Ocean Photographer of the Year Award exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. Editorial Director of Oceanographic magazine and the founder of Ocean Photographer of the Year, Will Harrison says, ‘Sydney is synonymous with the ocean, and so hosting this ground-breaking, first-ever, full Ocean Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum felt like a natural fit.’ The award celebrates ocean photographers of all disciplines and experience levels across nine prize categories. The exhibition is on display until 26 May 2024 at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
A number of artists from the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand region have been acknowledged in the recent World Crafts Council Asia Pacific Region Craft Masters Awards 2023 (WCC APR Craft Masters Awards), hosted in Dongyang, China. An international jury, consisting of 11 members, evaluated each application based on five endorsement criteria: extraordinary contribution to field, sustainable practice, international recognition, continuous learning and international collaboration. A number of remarkable winners emerged, including nine from Central Asia, nine from the South Pacific (comprising Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific islands), seven from South Asia, eight from West Asia, seven from South East Asia and 20 from East Asia. The Australian recipients are Greg Daly (ceramics), Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello OAM (glass), Kirstie Rea (glass), Liz Williamson (textiles/weaving), Marian Hosking (silversmith/jeweller), Mary Dhapalany (fibre textiles/weaving), Prue Venables (ceramics), Rangi Kipa and Sandra Black (ceramics).
Armidale artist Janna Hayes has been awarded the 2023 Helen Dangar Memorial Art Bursary, announced by New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM). Hayes receives $3000 towards her future art endeavours, which includes attending a loom weaving workshop at Kawashima Textile School, Kyoto. The Art Bursary is awarded each year to a local artist to support professional or creative development. Hayes’ art consists of large, expressive landscapes and abstract pieces painted primarily in bitumen and oil paint on paper. She examines the relationship individuals have with nature and the way in which they turn to specific landscapes for solace, grounding and rejuvenation. Hayes says her trip to Japan to attend the loom weaving workshop will provide a unique opportunity to learn a new skill that builds on her interest in working with fibre. ‘Having not gone to art school, this represents a chance for me to attend a high-level workshop and benefit from professional teaching alongside other Australian fibre artists. It’s an opportunity to learn as well as to create new relationships with other artists with more experience showing fibre work.’
Performing arts
Troye Sivan has struck gold at the 2023 ARIA Awards with a total of four awards, including Song of the Year, Best Solo Artist, Engineer – Best Engineered Release and Producer – Best Produced Release. Genesis Owusu came in close with three ARIA wins, including Album of the Year, Best Hip Hop/Rap Release and Best Independent Release presented by PPCA. G Flip and Forest Claudette both took home two wins, with Claudette taking home their first ever ARIA Award with Best Soul/R&B Release, ‘Mess Around’. Other winners include Kylie Minogue for Best Pop Release, Taylor Swift for Most Popular International Artist, Dan Sultan for Best Adult Contemporary Album, Fanny Lumsden for Best Country Album, MK & Dom Dolla for Best Dance/Electronic Release, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard for Best Rock Album, Joseph Tawadros for Best World Music Album, Teenage Dads for Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist, Parkway Drive for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album, The Teskey Brothers for Best Blues & Roots Album, The Vampires featuring Chris Abrahams for Best Jazz Album, and John Farnham: Finding The Voice (Music From The Feature Documentary) for Best Original Soundtrack or Musical Theatre Cast Album presented by Stan. The Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award was presented to Sue Lowry of Southport Special School, Yugambeh Country, Gold Coast. Find the full list of winners.
The 2023 Northern Territory Performing Arts Awards has unveiled winners across nine categories, with Kuya James (aka James Mangohig) taking home two awards this year – the Outstanding Creative Award and Best Performance Award for Hymns for the Witching Hour. Tara Murphy followed in close pursuit, collecting both the Outstanding Performer Award and the People’s Choice Award, which she received after picking up over a quarter of the votes. Two Aussie heroes – singer and songwriter Dr Shellie Morris AO and tenured artistic director Sean Pardy – both received the Legend Award for the rich cultural music and mentorship they have contributed throughout their dedicated careers in elevating the Northern Territory arts scene. Emerging artists Spillett and Tomm Lydiard took home the Young Achiever and Behind the Scenes awards – Spillett for their charismatic and hypnotic performances, and Lydiard for shining the light on Australian household names such as Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy, and the many homegrown plays and performances in Darwin. Find out more on the 2023 NT Performing Arts Awards winners.
Shortlisted and finalists
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the 2023 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship shortlist. The shortlisted applicants, chosen by authors Mirandi Riwoe and Anna Spargo-Ryan, are:
- Emily Bitto for Reasons to Leave, ‘a multi-protagonist novel about a wave of Czechoslovakian migrants to the western suburbs of Melbourne’
- Kate Mildenhall for We Bought a Town, ‘a contemporary thriller set over three days and told from the perspective of nine characters’
- Kirli Saunders for Yaraman, ‘a First Nations queer romance … centred on youth incarceration and caring for land’, and
- Michael Winkler for Griefdogg, ‘a “sort of sequel” to his Miles Franklin–shortlisted Grimmish … touching on issues of masculinity and vulnerability, alongside climate change and globalisation’.
The Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship, worth $35,000, is offered annually to an Australian author to provide time to work on a current manuscript. A runner-up will also receive $15,000. Winners will be announced on 29 November.
Create NSW has announced the six emerging NSW visual artists who have been shortlisted for the Create NSW and Artspace 2024 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging) worth $30,000. Kalanjay Dhir, Remy Faint, Charlotte Haywood, Gillian Kayrooz, Kien Situ and Talia Smith will receive mentorship from Artspace’s curatorial team to showcase works for the fellowship exhibition that will open at The Gunnery at Artspace in July 2024, with the fellowship recipient to be announced at the official exhibition launch. Artspace Executive Director, Alexie Glass-Kantor says: ‘My co-curators, Sarah Rose and Yuanyu Li and I, are inspired by this opportunity to collaborate with these six artists. We look forward to seeing how the 2024 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging) will find its own form, integrity and identity as it returns to The Gunnery building for the first time since 2020. We are delighted to welcome this moment of renewal for the Fellowship, which will now be a three-month exhibition in the middle of Artspace’s artistic program and will offer opportunities for audiences to connect with these artists and their practices in unique ways.‘ Find out more on the shortlisted artists.
Read: A new era shaped by artists’ studio needs
Check out previous Opportunities and Awards wraps for more announcements.
