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This week’s winners
Shortlisted and finalists
This week’s opportunities
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2023 Queensland Music Awards (QMA)
The Queensland Music Awards will return on March 28, 2023 to spotlight new talent and celebrate the local music industry. Artists who released songs and music videos between December 1, 2021 and November 30, 2022 can be nominated in more than 20 widely varying award categories. Venues and festivals are also invited to submit nominations for the People’s Choice Awards, which will be decided by public vote, as well as judged by a panel of industry experts. The Billy Thorpe Fellowship and the Carol Lloyd Prize are also open for applications.
Applications close on November 28; learn more.
Welcoming submissions from writers across Australia who have completed a manuscript and are seeking publication, the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Prize offers a cash prize of $10,000 to the top winner and a publishing deal with UWA Publishing. Accepted genres include fiction, narrative non-fiction, and poetry, including hybrid genres such as verse novels or memoirs. This year, Thuy On (ArtsHub’s own editor) and Kate Pickard will join the judging panel.
Submissions close November 30; learn more and submit.
Commissions:
Major VACS commissioning projects
These grants provide investments to individuals and groups under the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy. Each year, a set number of grants are available for each state or territory reflecting the population distribution of the country on which the strategy is based. Grants of $100,000 are available. The proposed new order must be presented to the public before December 31, 2024.
Applications close on December 6; find out more and apply.
Grants and Funding:
Four-year investment for organizations
The four-year investment provides a multi-year investment in arts and culture organizations by the Australian Council. This will allow organizations to plan with longer-term certainty and increase their ability to leverage other support and collaboration. Organizations must demonstrate a high degree of artistic achievement, as well as a compelling four-year vision for the period 2025-2028. To be competitive, organizations will also need to show that they are well governed, efficiently managed, and generating diversified revenue streams. An online webinar will take place on November 16, from 1 to 2 p.m. ADT, Register.
EOIs end on February 14, 2023; learn more.
Professional development:
McClelland is calling for expressions of interest from First Nations artists to join a residency program aimed at developing skills and capacity in public art and producing major creative outcomes. Four First Nations artists or teams of artists will reside in McClelland’s studio cottage for a period of six to 12 weeks each, developing detailed concept proposals for a site-specific permanent public artwork. All Australian First Nations artists or bands at any stage of their career are welcome to apply.
EOIs end on November 24; learn more and submit.
Applications from artists and scientists are welcome for the Synapse 2023 residency program, which aims to generate new knowledge, ideas and processes that are beneficial beyond the two fields. The residencies take place over 16 weeks full-time (or part-time equivalent) in a host organization. ANAT will pay fees to participating artists and contribute to the costs of project materials, accommodation costs and return travel to the residency destination if required.
Closing of applications on February 16, 2023; find out more and apply.
Want more? Visit our Opportunities for more open competitions, awards, EOIs and calls.
This week’s winners
Visual arts:
The 24th Brett Whiteley Traveling Art Fellowship was awarded to six young Australian painters with the fellowship offering two types of residencies for the first time. Bill Hawkins of Coburg, Victoria received a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and funding of $40,000. Five artists have been offered a two-week residency at Shark Island Institute Kangaroo Valley, NSW. The recipients are: Mark Maurangi Carrol (NSW), Sarah Drinan (Vic), Miranda Hine (Qld), Drew Connor Holland (NSW) and Flin Sharp (NSW). Each recipient will receive $10,000 as part of the scholarship.
Reflecting on Hawkins’ winning work, 2022 guest judge Mitch Cairns said: ‘I found the works to be utterly compelling, alive in their surface quality and their ability to unsettle my painting mind. The works are both rich and reserved; both sensitive to the historical lines of painting, while remaining at peace with their own personal artistic entanglement.
Lauren Starr from Bendigo (Vic) was the big winner of the 2022 Bluethumb Art Prize, taking home $150,000 plus an additional $10,000 for winning the Photography category. Starr was also the winner in the Photography category last year. This year she presented The daughter of Midas II, a sumptuous work inspired by the Greek mythology of King Midas. The photo is of Starr’s own daughter, with the whole set painted entirely by hand. Starr said of the major award win: “It’s really life changing. It may even allow me to become a full-time artist.
Judge Tamara Dean said: “The reference to the fairy tale in [Midas’ Daughter II] is powerful, reminding the viewer of the true meaning of what can be lost in the pursuit of possessions. It takes us to a different world, a world steeped in symbolism. This photograph is beautifully staged and executed to the finest detail.
Bluethumb Art Prize category winners are Peter Tankey (Still Life), Shaz Spannenburg (Digital), Donovan Christie (Landscape), Jodi Steward (Sculpture), John Reid (Abstract), Monika Dia’k (Portrait), Martha Protty (Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander) and Konstantinos Missios (Founders Award). Learn more.
SALA School Award celebrates visual art in South Australian schools, supported by Credit Union SA. The program places practicing visual artists in schools to create dynamic learning opportunities with student artwork exhibited during the SALA festival. The 2022 winners are Berri Regional Secondary College, Valley View Secondary School, Woodcroft College and Woodville Gardens Primary School. Commendations were awarded to Christies Beach Primary School and Urrbrae Agricultural High School.
Performing arts:
Australian composer and conductor Nigel Westlake received the Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen Award at the 2022 Screen Music Awards. Westlake’s career spans over four decades. Born in Perth, Western Australia, from the age of 17, he travels the world as a freelance clarinetist, bass clarinetist and saxophonist with ballet companies, a circus troupe, chamber music ensembles, groups fusion and orchestras. He composed his first film score in 1989, and later gained wide recognition for his music for the Oscar-nominated film baby. Other film scores he has composed include feature films Ali’s Wedding, Paper Airplanes, Miss Potter, Babe: Pig in the City, Children of the Revolution and the nugget, as well as Imax movies Antarctica, The Edge, Imagine and solarmax.
Westlake’s compositions have won numerous accolades, including the Gold Medal at the New York International Radio Festival, 11 APRA Awards in the screen and classical music categories, two ARIA Awards and five AGSC Awards. He is a two-time winner of the prestigious Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize and in 2013 received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of NSW. In 2008, Westlake founded the Smugglers of Light Foundation with his family in memory of his son Eli, to promote cultural awareness and empowerment through music and film in Indigenous communities.
Filter:
Dr. Sian Mitchell has been named the recipient of the 2022 Natalie Miller Annual Fellowship. Currently Festival Director at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival and Lecturer in Screen and Design at Deakin University, Mitchell is passionate about sharing stories for the screen and welcomes the opportunity to work with next-generation storytellers.
With a PhD in Film Studies and an MA in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Mitchell has had her research published in areas of Australian and women’s film practice in industry journals and blogs, including Historical environment, peephole log, NFSA and AFI Research Collection. She also sits on the board of directors of the Alliance française de Melbourne and is a member of the international advisory committee of the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival.
Lily: Dr. Sian Mitchell receives the Natalie Miller Fellowship
Shortlisted and finalists
Over the past six months, the 2022 Music Victoria Awards entries have been whittled down by a team of over 200 acclaimed judges to arrive at a solid list of ‘best in class’ nominations, including Confidence Man, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Mo’Ju, Kutcha Edwards, Lance Ferguson, Nikodimos and Zretro. Best Folk Work sees a solid list of nominations, with Above The Bit, Austral, Charm of Finches, Kerryn Fields and Ruby Gill, as does the Best Reggae and Dancehall Work category, with Jah Tung, JahWise, Nicky Bomba and Shottaz all in the running for the best corner. The Archie Roach Foundation Award for Emerging Talent featured Bumpy, Carissa Nyalu, Jess Hitchcock, MpathSoul (Monica Jasmine Karo), and Pirritu. And, back in 2022, nominees for the Arts Access Amplify Award include Batts, Between Mirrors, Evelyn Ida Morris, Nat Bartsch and Saint Ergo.
The MAV Diasporas Award (formerly Best Global/Intercultural) is an award created for, by and with culturally and linguistically diverse creatives as an artistic intervention aimed at increasing visibility, participation and equity in the music scene towards a new musical ecology. A long list of artists including Ajak Kwai, Black Jesus Experience (BJX), Charles Maimarosia, Hand to Earth and Vanessa Estrada have been nominated for the revised category. Find out more about the Music Victoria Awards 2022.
The Poem Forest Prize is blossoming into its second year with nearly 6,000 new seedlings planted – one for each poem entered. A shortlist of 80 young poets has been revealed, spanning eight award categories for teachers and students in kindergarten to grade 12 from every state and territory in Australia. Winning entries will be announced on November 17, 2023 from the 2022 shortlist. Judges select one winner and one highly recommended spot in each of the eight award categories. Read the shortlisted poems.
Consult the precedents Opportunity and reward envelopes for more announcements.
