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Inaugural WAMA art prize open

The entire July 14, 2021 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

Halls Gap-based Wildlife Art Museum of Australia has launched the inaugural WAMA Art Prize, with $25,000 up for grabs for excellence in nature-inspired art.

The award, for art created with or on paper, will become a biennial event and feature an online exhibition of finalists.



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The exhibition will present a diverse range of paper works and techniques, including drawing, painting, photography and sculpture.

The museum’s art advisory council chair Jacqueline Healy said the prize invited a multi-disciplinary range of nature inspired Australian artists, to celebrate their connectivity with nature and ‘raise awareness of the importance of conserving our precious and unique Australian environment’.

“We envisage the WAMA Art Prize will attract a broad spectrum of artists who are passionately engaged with the theme of ‘Where Art Meets Nature’ and this will attract great interest from the wider Australian community,” she said. 

“The Archibald Prize is a wonderful example of an exhibition having a significant impact on generating broad community interest in portraiture.

“The award will provide the opportunity for us to explore, through art, our relationship with the environment through the artist’s perspective, who embrace the environment in their work.”

The artworks will be judged by a ‘strong and dynamic judging panel’ including Australian Print Workshop director Anne Virgo, art historian and art critic Robert Nelson, Contemporary Art Gallery director Suzanne Davies and Dr Healy.

People can enter WAMA Art Prize online at wama.net.au by August 18.

Judges will announce the major acquisitive award of $15,000 and Awards of Excellence on September 18, to coincide with an online exhibition of finalists.

Included within the exhibition is a People’s Choice Award, chosen via public vote, with the winner announced on October 24.