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This week’s opportunities
Awards and competitions
2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
Entries are open for the 2025 Victorian premier’s Literary Awards with the introduction of a new award category, the John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing. The new award expands the total prize pool to $315,000, with The Wheeler Centre providing a further $2000 for the People’s Choice Award. Winners of of the seven main categories – Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama, Poetry, Award for Indigenous Writing, Children’s Literature and Writing for Young Adults – each receive $25,000.
Entries close 27 September; learn more and enter.
The biennial Dobell Drawing Prize is a $30,000 acquisitive prize presented by the National Art School in partnership with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation. There are no limitations on media for the Prize – as well as works on paper, entries that present drawing in alternative formats are invited.
Entries close 30 September; learn more and enter.
2025 Peter Porter Poetry Prize
Australian Book Review welcomes entries to the 2025 Peter Porter Poetry Prize worth a total of $10,000 and open to all living poets writing in English. The winner will receive $6000 with the four other shortlisted poets receiving $1000 each. Entries must be an original and unpublished single-authored poem of not more than 60 lines. The five shortlisted poems will be published in the January-February 2025 issue of ABR and the winner will be announced at a ceremony later that month.
Entries close 7 October; learn more and enter.
The Ramsay Art Prize offers a $100,000 prize with the winning work acquired into the Art Gallery of South Australia’s collection. Finalists will be selected by a judging panel comprising leading Australian artist Michael Zavros; Associate Professor and Program Director of Visual Art at the Queensland College of Art and Design and inaugural winner of the Ramsay Art Prize’s People’s Choice Prize, Julie Fragar; and Emma Fey, Acting Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia. All works selected as finalists will be exhibited in a major exhibition at AGSA from 31 May to 31 August 2025.
Entries close 13 December; learn more and enter.
Call-outs
Linden Postcard Show 2024-2025 (Vic)
Linden New Art welcomes entries to the 34th Linden Postcard Show, now with expanded artwork sizing. 2D artworks can be up to 60 x 60 x 10cm and 3D pieces can be 60 x 40 x 40cm. Artists can enter a maximum of three artworks and be in the running for prizes.
Entries close 20 October; learn more and enter.
2025 Gertrude Studio Program (Vic)
Gertrude is now accepting applications for the Gertrude Studio Program 2025 intake, celebrating 40 years since the founding of the organisation. Participation in the two-year Studio Program includes an individual studio, as well as access to all of the shared communal spaces and workshop facilities. The Program includes a funded solo exhibition at Gertrude Glasshouse during the residency tenure, and participation in the annual Gertrude Studios exhibition at Gertrude Contemporary across both years. Each year Gertrude offers a fully-subsidised studio for a First Nations artist.
Applications close 21 October; learn more and apply.
Science Gallery Melbourne 2026 Exhibition (Vic)
Science Gallery Melbourne is inviting proposals for projects to be included in its 2026 show EMERGENCE(Y). Ideas to be explored include climate crisis, sustainable energy, evolution, non-human adaptation, resilience, species survival and more. This open call invites applicants to propose installations and research projects that can operate in a shared-space group exhibition context in a non-traditional gallery environment, where the light and sound conditions aren’t constant. Projects selected via the open call are generally funded for up to $8000, which includes all fees, materials, freight and other project costs.
Applications close 27 October; learn more and apply.
Professional development
The Art Object, Conservation and Collection Management Seminar (NSW)
16albermarle Project Space is presenting a seminar with practical information from conservators and registrars on collection management. The aim of the seminar is to offer a starting point for practical skill development in the understanding of objects and their parts; object handling, storage and environment; packing and transport; installation and supports; examination of objects and condition reporting. The two-day program runs across 25-26 September in Sydney.
Bookings now open; learn more.
Layton Emerging Composer Fellowship
This fellowship is open to all Australian citizens and permanent residents in an early career stage (within the first seven years of creative practice). The winner receives $10,000 to write one eight- to 10-minute chamber work for the Australia Ensemble UNSW across a 12-month period. The Emerging Composer will also be eligible for mentoring sessions with leading composers and members of the Australia Ensemble UNSW, and their works will feature in at least one public workshop.
Applications close 2 October; learn more and apply.
2025 Createability Internship Program (NSW)
Applications are now open for NSW arts, music and screen organisations to participate in the 2025 Createability Internship Program and be matched with talented creative practitioners with disability or who are d/Deaf through paid internships. Up to 10 Createability host organisations will deliver internships of four weeks equivalent. The internships offer accessible pathways to employment, training and professional development. Interns with suitable skills, interests and experience will be matched to opportunities with selected organisations through the competitive application process.
Applications close 21 October; learn more and apply.
Want more? Visit our Opportunities page for more open competitions, prizes, EOIs and call-outs.
This week’s winners
Visual arts
The 2024 Bowness Photography Prize has named Robert Fielding as its winner for Sacred earth/Manta Miil miilpa, a work of protest that communicates the artist’s intention to practise truth-telling through his image-making. Fielding says in the artist statement, “Sacred earth/Manta Miil miilpa pays tribute to a place near Mimili where we come together – a place we receive, pass on and create knowledge. This work is old and new. Present but secretive. One must look back to move forward, always honouring our land and culture.” Honourable mentions include Kirsten Lyttle, Patrick Pound and Axel Garay. The exhibition is on view at the Museum of Australian Photography until 10 November.
Hobart/nipaluna artist Robyn Higgins has been awarded the $10,000 Mary Maxwell Travel Scholarship in Creative Arts and Media, and will use the opportunity to focus on rabbit ‘invasion’ as part of her residency at the Rosamond McCulloch Studio in Paris. The University of Tasmania PhD student will expand on her work Bunny, a series comprising installation, photography, film and drawing. Bunny was inspired by an encounter with a dying rabbit just weeks after the release of the biological control calicivirus in Australia to curb the population. In Spain and southern France, where the animal originated, European rabbits are actually a threatened species. Higgins says, “My research is uncovering an incredibly rich local history of human-rabbit entanglements in lutruwita and I anticipate this will be further enriched by my investigations in Paris and regional France.”
Hannah Gartside has won the 23rd Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize worth $25,000 with a piece from her ongoing series, Bunnies in Love, Lust and Longing. The second-hand gloves appear like two figures conjoined, lying on their side in a fetal position. Based in Melbourne, Gartside is a sculptor and installation artist working with found fabrics, clothing and ephemera to articulate experiences and sensations of longing, tenderness, care, desire and fury. Prior to her visual art training, Gartside worked as a costume-maker and dresser. She says, “I use discarded, worn materials because I believe in their inherent worth and value. These materials act as portals for storytelling, and receptive vessels for emotional expression. At times in my life I have felt devalued or discarded, and I made this work during one of those times. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘the poem knows things the poet doesn’t’? Well, this sculpture showed me what I needed: aloneness, rest, introspection and quietude.”
Spanish photographer Rafael Fernández Caballero has been named Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024 for his striking image of a Bryde’s whale feeding on a baitball, chosen from more than 15,000 ocean images across all disciplines, including underwater, surf and drone. All finalists’ images will be displayed in the Australian National Maritime Museum from 28 November.
Winners of the 2024 AMaGA Awards were announced at the Australian Museums and Galleries Association’s National Conference on 17 September. Gordon Darling Foundation, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Australian National Maritime Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia and Yarra Ranges Regional Museum are among those that walked away with major wins. The Award for Social Impact went to New England Regional Art Museum for Winter Blooming Festival and Melbourne Holocaust Museum for Hidden: Seven Children Saved. The 2024 ICOM Australia Award for an institution was taken out by the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, which also won the Excellence in Print Award for Muse magazine. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art’s Ruth McDougall was awarded the 2024 ICOM Australia Award for an individual, in recognition of her work with artists, institutions and communities across Oceania and as a key member of the curatorial team for six Asia-Pacific Triennial exhibitions.
Three-time Lester Prize finalist Ben Howe was presented with the top gong this year for his painting Cartagena Library, an oil on panel portrait of two friends in the sumptuous room in which the piece is ultimately intended to be hung. Howe says of the work, “Cartagena Library is a portrait of my gay friends Ramon and Matthew, portrayed as their straight friends Raphael Solaris and Eamon O’Donoghue, made to be hung in the same room it describes, with the sitters surrounded by important objects and dressed in Ramon and Matthew’s clothing… It was quite jarring seeing these two friends interact with each other while wearing Ramon and Matthew’s clothes, sitting in the very room in which the finished piece would be hung. It’s a reflection of an alternative life – an impression of an imprecise memory.” All finalists’ works are on view at WA Museum Boola Bardip until 17 November.
Sam Peterson has won the $10,000 Incinerator Art Award with You Need Us (2023), which ties with this year’s theme ‘Art for Social Change’. Also announced was the $1000 City of Moonee Valley Mayoral Award winner. Chiara Zeta was selected for her work Un/believable 2 (2024), which met the thematic brief through highlighting the slogans of generations of women’s rights and in the communication of ideas from the feminist movement from the past and present. The 2024 Incinerator Art Award exhibition is on view at Incinerator Gallery until 24 November.
The votes are in for SWELL Sculpture Festival‘s People’s Choice Awards, with Georgia Furniss’ Ambivalence winning in popularity for large sculpture and Revisitor by John Vanderkolk, Mark George and Jeremy Sheehan taking out the prize in the small category. The Kids’ Choice winner was Richard Scott for Barker’s Beach Store while Chelsea Jewell and Llama took out the SWELL After Dark Award with Haven.
Design
The winners of two Powerhouse design initiatives, the Holdmark Innovation Award and the Carl Nielsen Design Accelerator have been announced. The $10,000 Holdmark Innovation Award went to Melbourne-based design practice Kennedy Nolan and environmental consultancy Finding Infinity for the Wilam Ngarrang Retrofit project, with designer Caity Duffus awarded as the recipient of the Carl Nielsen Design Accelerator program for her project, Mycelia House. The Retrofit addresses the challenges of waste in the construction industry through innovative ways of reusing or recycling materials and provides efficiency initiatives like rooftop rainwater collection and solar panel installation that reduce the building’s energy use by 70%. Its partnership with social enterprise HomeGround allows two apartments to be rented out below the market rate, assisting those who are struggling to enter the rental market. Meanwhile Duffus’ Mycelia House is a functional container that captures the beauty of mushrooms and supports their growth within the home. She receives a nine-month program of support, including mentorship from industrial designer Ed Ko, to produce and distribute Mycelia House.
Performing arts
The first round of 10,000 Gigs: The Victorian Gig Fund has invested $3.9 million in music festivals, musicians and live music venues. As part of the package, $1 million of Music Works grants will support 92 music projects involving 600 music industry professionals. A total of 144 music venues across the state received investments, as well as 22 festivals, with grants of up to $50,000. Events include the Port Fairy Folk Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival and Riverboats Festival, alongside the return of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues. Multicultural Arts Victoria will present its third iteration of its NEWPRINT program, offering professional development opportunities for artists and creative workers from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Find out more.
Writing and publishing
Marwa Hijazi, Joshua Abrokwah, Lina Jabbour, Sonny Arifien and Judi Morison have been selected to take part in the Cultivate Mentorship Program for emerging writers from diverse backgrounds. The five will work with African Australian speculative fiction author, Eugen Bacon, over the coming months to prepare a work for submission to a journal or anthology. Bacon says, “I was deeply touched by the large number of applications we received for this inspiring initiative in a mentoring program for emerging writers from diverse backgrounds. I appreciated the mix of form and genre: short stories, narrative non-fiction, prose poetry, novel … and the participant statements on what the mentorship would mean to them were they selected.”
Read: Failure and frustration spawn success for Prime Minister’s Literary Awards winners
Shortlisted and finalists
The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) has announced the 2024 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers longlist. This year the longlisted writers include Averil Robertson, Becca Wang, Hollen Singleton, Jehan Loza, Oanh Dang, Myles McGuire, Matt Freeman, Tzeyi Koay and Danielle Ringrose. Prize Manager Hasib Hourani says entries have nearly doubled compared to last year, and the quality of writing was “unprecedented”. The writers on this longlist will be judged on the first three chapters of their submitted work, along with a synopsis outlining the direction of the proposed work and details about how their writing career would benefit from winning the Prize. The shortlist will be announced on 17 October with the winner revealed on 27 November.
Six books have been shortlisted for the $40,000 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award: Reaching Through Time by Shauna Bostock, Book of Life by Deborah Conway, Donald Horne by Ryan Cropp, Wifedom by Anna Funder, Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko and What the Trees See by Dave Witty. Each of the six finalists will receive the $1500 Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize and are eligible for the $4000 Nib People’s Choice Prize, awarded by popular vote and now open for voting. The winner will be announced on 27 November.
After attracting record number of entries, the Silver Gull Play Award has selected six plays for its 2024 shortlist, which responds to New Theatre’s ethos of ‘Plays With a Purpose’. The shortlist for The Silver Gull Play Award 2024 is: 6069 and Counting by James Balian and Roger Vickery, Fortress by Erica J Brennan, Noah’s Ark by Campion Decent, Rehearsing Julie by Noel Hodda, Roslyn Gardens by David McLaughlin and Macaroni and Dead Things by Miranda Michalowski. A further three plays were Highly Commended: The Mountain Remembers by Daley Rangi, The Incorrigibles by Melita Rowston and She Threaded Dangerously by Simon Thomson and Emma Wright. Rehearsed readings of excerpts from the shortlisted plays will be presented on 14 October, followed by announcement of the winners.
Check out previous Opportunities and Awards wraps for more announcements.
