2006 Media Releases
Tuesday, 11 April 2006
LA TROBE UNIVERSITY ARTIST WINS
‘A PLACE IN THE WORLD’
La Trobe University photographic artist, Donna Bailey, has won a major award in the prestigious ‘A Place in the World’ Visual Arts Prize in Adelaide.
Ms Bailey won the inaugural award by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and University of Adelaide which showcases visual arts excellence of students from universities in Australia and New Zealand.
It is the latest in a series of awards for Ms Bailey – a doctoral research student in Visual Arts on the University’s Bendigo campus – who has become a national identity with an emerging international reputation in the field of photography.
Two prizes were awarded. Ms Bailey took out the University of Adelaide Visual Art prize valued at $3,000 for her work entitled, ‘The Ideal’ which will now go into the University of Adelaide’s art collection.
Her work depicts local children flying kites on the granite plains of Bendigo. Blue kites rise above the thirsty earth in a brilliant sky. Ms Bailey says it reflects life in central Victoria and the ‘hope, energy and resilience of the community in the face of drought. Despite the challenges, we continue to live and play here’.
La Trobe University Head of the School of Visual Arts and Design, David Stuchbery, said the award was a significant achievement for Ms Bailey and La Trobe University.
With three other artists from the Bendigo campus – photography student Garry Brannon, painter and PhD candidate Karen Annett, and painter and Master of Visual Arts candidate Margaret Parker – also selected as finalists, Mr Stuchbery said the award helps highlight the importance of research in the visual arts.
‘The focus, energy and effort required to be an active researcher can provide a tremendous boost for the exhibiting and practising artists.’
Ms Bailey said the prize provided an opportunity for tertiary students to create a work of art which reflects the personal or cultural complexities of life in Australia or New Zealand. And it was a great honour to be presented the award by Nobel Prize winning author, Professor John Coetzee, in front of some 300 Vice-Chancellors from Commonwealth countries.
Lauryn Arnott, from Adelaide Central School of Art, won the ACU Prize valued at $5,000. Her work goes into the ACU’s head office collection in London.
• Ms Bailey’s current exhibition, ‘The Footballers’ is on show at the La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre in View Street, Bendigo. As part of that exhibition, she will present a free Visual Arts seminar this Easter Saturday, 15th April with two interstate artists, Ella Dreyfus and Jesse Marlow.
Titled ‘Has Anyone Seen the Boy’, it is an opportunity for people interested in contemporary photography to hear from three prominent photographic artists on the young subject in photography and runs from 11am to 1pm. Bookings can be made by phoning 03 5441 8724.
For further information:
David Stuchbery Tel: 03 5444 7279