Toward the end of the day, Kirsten Coelho, Shepparton Art Museum, 2012 Sidney Myer Fund Australia Ceramic Award, Australian Prize (Photograph: Matthew Stanton).
Running for more than two decades, the Sidney Myer Fund Australia Ceramic Award (SMFACA) presented by Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) has given the slowly disappearing art of ceramics a new life and Australian ceramicists a welcome encouragement to keep the wheel turning.
Kirsten Paisley, Director SAM, said that five years ago ceramics wasn’t as actively collected or curated into shows by public galleries in Australia.
‘Ceramics was an invisible medium in some ways, and was celebrated in the craft world and largely separate from the broader art industry.
‘With the Australian Ceramic Award: we have been trying to make the practice of ceramics more present, visible and relevant in the context of contemporary art, and this is exactly what has happened.’
The new incarnation of the Award being launched this year will focus on the works of five contemporary Australian ceramicists instead of three, after dropping the international component.
‘We feel that we should be focusing on opportunities for Australian artists. And we wanted to up the prize money in line with the growth of contemporary art in ceramic media.
‘Now, we’ll be shortlisting five Australian artists, each of whom will receive a $2,000 stipend to produce a body of work for a solo show at SAM.
‘The artists will all show alongside each other, from which one artist will be awarded a $50,000 acquisitive prize,’ said Paisley.
Ceramic artists are expected to apply with exhibition concepts, and will get four months to deliver works to SAM for the opening of the exhibition on 22 August 2015. The five artists and the award-winning work will be shortlisted by an independent contemporary curator along with the SAM Director.
‘Artists have to apply with an exhibition concept, whether it be a body of work or an installation concept.
‘We are looking for original handling of the media with new ideas about how ceramic can be utilised to express contemporary ideas and current thinking,’ said Paisley.
All the works will be professionally photographed and published in an accompanying exhibition catalogue, with an online presence, seminars, workshops programmed alongside the exhibition.
‘For some artists that haven’t had the experience of working with a public gallery before, this is a really valuable chance to have that exposure and feedback, resulting from working closely with a curator,’ said Paisley.
Applications open on 30 January and close on 20 March 2015. For further information, please visit the SAM website.
Kirsten Coelho, winner of the 2012 Sidney Myer Fund ACA, talks about the Award’s impact on her life and practice since winning.
Kirsten Coelho’s take on winning SAM’s Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award in 2012 from Shepparton Art Museum on Vimeo.
