City of Melville Council is encouraging the community to head up the hill for the opening of the Melville Art Awards at Wireless Hill Museum on Friday, November 8th.
One of the state’s biggest annual celebrations of Western Australian arts talent, the Melville Art Awards is open to emerging and established artists alike proudly placing art and community centre stage, with an exhibition that draws around 3,000 visitors.
The 48th Melville Art Awards has attracted close to 400 entries and will feature around 120 artists, ranging from first time entrants, local high school students through to emerging and professional Western Australian artists.
“The City of Melville is proud to provide a range of events and cultural activities including the Melville Art Awards, which is a long-running art prize that has supported thousands of Western Australian artists,” said City of Melville Mayor, Katy Mair.
“Through celebrating local artists and their work, the Melville Art Awards has grown to become one of Western Australia’s most popular art awards.
“In its nearly 50-year history, the Awards have engaged hundreds of artists and thousands of audience members annually.
“Melville Art Awards is unique because it provides opportunities for artists to exhibit for the first time, right through to wide exposure for professional artists.
“I encourage the community to get involved in this year’s Melville Art Awards by either coming to Wireless Hill Museum to view the exceptional work created by local artists for this year’s exhibition or by getting involved in the public program.”
Visitors to the exhibition can expect a wide variety of works on display, from colour-soaked paintings to evocative photographs, and delicate ceramic vessels.
Held at the Wireless Hill Museum since 2021, the sunset exhibition opening night event is open to the public and hosted from 6pm on Friday, November 8th.
Guests will enjoy music, food and an awards ceremony in the beautiful setting of Yagan Mia Wireless Hill Park.
The community is also being encouraged to get involved in the public program of events, including tours, talks and art workshops on topics such as life drawing, pottery, oil portraits and more.
A driving force behind the nearly 50-year history of the Melville Art Awards has been supporting and fostering the careers of Western Australian artists.
The overall winning artwork, along with various others from the exhibition, are acquired for the City of Melville Art Collection, which holds more than 450 artworks.
This year’s Awards offer finalists a total prize pool of $17,000 across 12 individual prize categories ranging from the Overall Award ($8,500) to the Youth Award ($1,000), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award ($1,000), People’s Choice Award ($1,000), and City of Melville Resident Award ($1,000).
This year there will be a new Print Award, sponsored by the Printmakers Association of WA, with the award winner receiving a 12-month membership and 10 studio sessions at the PAWA studio based at Atwell House.
The award promotes excellence in printmaking with a hand pulled technique and aims to foster an appreciation of printmaking as a medium.
Finalists working in print will be part of the Public Program in an artist talk on Saturday, 30 November called A Conversation with Printmakers.
Also being held in conjunction with the Melville Art Awards is a solo exhibition by Winthrop artist Judi Smith called Hidden Wonder.
The exhibition will run at Canning Bridge Community Space from Friday, 15 November to Sunday, November 24th, and is the culmination of 12 months’ work by Judi, who was awarded the Arts Development Award at the 2023 Melville Art Awards.
The award enabled her to receive mentorship by City of Melville Visual Arts officers to develop her solo exhibition, along with a $1,000 cash prize.
Following the opening night, the Melville Art Awards will be on display at Wireless Hill Museum from 9am to 4pm from Saturday, November 9th to Sunday, December 1st.
For more information about the awards, exhibition and public program, visit https://www.melvillecity.com.au/artawards.
