A new art prize came onto the scene recently. This should hardly turn heads, given that there are hundreds of art prizes across Australia today. However, this one blazed into the headlines, touting that it would be ‘Australia’s largest art prize’ with the first prize offered sitting at a whopping $125,000.
We are talking about Sorrento Art Prize (& SAP), presented by & Gallery Australia, which is located in Sorrento on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
There are only a handful of prizes that offer winnings at $100,000 – the Archibald Prize (Art Gallery of NSW), Hadley’s Art Prize (Hardley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart), Telstra Art Award (NATSIAA, Darwin) and Ramsay Art Prize (Art Gallery of South Australia).
The Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (Moran Foundation) used to be the top prize at $150,000, but it has moved into a hiatus and has not been awarded since 2023. Perhaps this left a space in the limelight ripe for filling?
It beckoned us to take a closer look at this new prize, which is offered by a gallery in a coastal regional town, and because it has yet to land on Arts Law’s Prizes and Competitions Ratings list.
Read: Prizes and competitions to enter in 2024
A deeper look at Australia’s newest, richest art prize
On the webpage for the Sorrento Art Prize, it describes the prize as “designed significantly to impact the artist’s career”.
It adds, “Sixty artists from across Australia will be showcased over an eight-week exhibition, enriched with a series of artist talks, forums and events.”
This sounds great – who doesn’t love an art prize that financially and professionally supports artists?
Looking at the criteria, the prize is acquisitive and the gallery will take 40% on any sales. There is nothing unusual there, either. The shortlist of artists is selected by indicative works – up to five slides can be submitted, hence being described as an EOI (expression of interest) process.
The application fee is $50. This is the same amount charged for the Archibald, the Ramsay and Hadleys (NATSIAA is free to enter). As a guide, the 2024 Archibald Prize received 1005 entries or $50,250 –organisations use the entrance fees to offset the cost of staging these prizes.
While this is sound, and arguably practical accounting, one may ask that if these were truly altruistic endeavours aimed at supporting artists’ professional development, then perhaps the entry fee could be dropped and the winnings reduced slightly. This way all benefit.
Artists still have to bear the costs of time and making, sometimes framing and photography, and getting the work to and from the venue.
Sadly, the tag line of ‘the biggest and the richest’ as a self-congratulatory marketing exercise wins.
Unfinished business leaves a cloud of doubt
Also on the prize’s home page, we are introduced to Julie Collins as curator of the Finalist exhibition. Colins is also described as an artist, independent curator and the director of & Gallery.
That name may sound familiar. Collins was behind the failed Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA), which collapsed in 2018. The event eventually went into administration.
Two years later, in July 2020, BOAA still owed $354,580 to creditors, with around 30% of artists participating in the event remaining unpaid for their work, while the organisation’s founder – Collins – was planning the opening of & Gallery.
ArtsHub reached out to Collins for an update on the details. “Over the past six years we have personally paid over $200,000 in debts, this being after the administration period. We pay people anytime we get extra money. This mission has been delayed with the COVID years and personal health issues, but we are still committed,” she said.
Money and blame, are always messy situations that lack a lot of clarity. And, with that, it is not possible or desirable to solely point a finger at any one person. Collins told ArtsHub, “In the end the negative press/social media stopped our ‘white knight’ coming to the rescue post event.”
However, news of the Sorrento Art Prize has aroused concerns among the Ballarat community. A source tells ArtsHub: “The launch of the massive new Sorrento Art Prize comes when most of the artists, as well as local businesses within the Ballarat region, have not yet been paid for their work and time after BOAA was declared bankrupt,’ adding many still remain unpaid today.
“There are many artists who are now worried about the validity of this new art prize, particularly when previous questions about payment for work are currently going unaddressed,” said our source, who adds they were not involved in BOAA and harbours no malice towards Collins.
Offering clarification on the funding for the new prize, Collins told ArtsHub, ‘The Sorrento Art Prize of $125,000 is secure and being underwritten by a private donor; no government funding is involved.”
She continued, “We are seeking additional awards from private donors also. The Gallery is supporting by providing the venue and the management of the prize.” Collins said the current chatter bubbling up around the new prize “will not only damage the Sorrento Art Prize, but also the Gallery and we may not survive”.
She added that & Gallery has exhibitions booked for the next 24 months – a number of which are by artists who showed with BOAA – and that the prize is an opportunity to enliven the town during the winter months.
Read: 6 tips for entering an art prize
While this failed festival has a long tail – both in terms of stories like this surfacing around Collins’ activities, but also in terms of the artists who never fully recovered from their loss – it is merely a reminder to all artists to really think through their activity when it comes to art prizes.
Before an artist enters any art prize, we suggest you take a look at the NAVA (National Association for the Visual Arts) art prize entry checklist, and its Code of Practice section on art prizes. Ask questions. Look at the field of prizes and confirm that this is the right one for you – and that you are confident it will represent your work in the best light.
Note: This article was corrected after publishing. BOAA did not move into bankruptcy, but rather into administration.
