News

28-03-2024

GALLERY’S $30,000 MAJOR ART AWARD RETURNS

Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre’s coveted biennial Wollumbin Art Award (WAA) is now open for entries.

The award, named after the sacred mountain which the Gallery overlooks, is open to artists living across the Northern Rivers in the local government areas of Tweed, Byron, Ballina, Kyogle, Scenic Rim Shires, Lismore and Gold Coast City.
For the first time, artists from the Richmond Valley will also be eligible.
Artists can submit up to 2 entries of any subject matter and medium. WAA 2024 award categories include a first prize of $15,000 and a 2-week residency in the Gallery’s Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio; a $10,000 WAA Bundjalung Award for First Nations artists and a solo exhibition in the Gallery. There is also a $5,000 Emerging Artist Award.
Guest judge for the WAA is recently appointed Director of Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Sebastian Goldspink. A proud descendant of the Burramattagal people of Western Sydney, Goldspink is an accomplished independent curator with extensive experience locally and abroad.
Goldspink was the curator of the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and has held professional appointments at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Month Sydney, National Art School and dLux Media Arts.
Aunty Joyce Summers will also be returning to the award’s pre-selection panel.
To celebrate the artistic talent and creativity of young people living in the region, artists aged between 5–18 years can enter the Wollumbin Youth Art Award (WYAA).
The Gallery is honoured to have Children’s Gallery Coordinator at HOTA, Home of the Arts Jodi Ferrari as guest judge of the youth award.
The WAA and WYAA finalist exhibitions will be on display at Tweed Regional Gallery from Friday 6 September until Sunday 24 November 2024, with award announcements on Saturday 7 September.
The WAA Bundjalung Award for First Nations artists is sponsored by Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd, and the Emerging Artist Award is supported by Leanne and Greg Tong-Lyon. The Wollumbin Youth Award is sponsored by the Friends of the Gallery.
Entries open 5 pm Monday 25 March and close 5 pm, Monday 3 June 2024. The WAA is $35 per entry. Entries for the WYAA are free.
For more information, visit
gallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au/prizes-awards
Photos: (above left) 2022 WAA winner Amber Wallis receives flowers from then Gallery Director Susi Muddiman OAM, after the official announcement from guest judge Alison Kubler. Photo: Jaka Adamic. and (bottom left) The 2022 Wollumbin Art Award exhibition. Photo: David Toyer.