Who Got Wot

Our recent posting of the 1973 artist grants has prompted some interesting discussion. Some readers feel that back in the good old days artists didn’t need to explain themselves, while others see the list we posted as indicative of a narrowly focused art world that was exclusive, elitist and primarily masculine. Although we pointed out that the names from that 1973 list of recipients was an excerpt, and provided a link to the full document, and admitted that we had simply chosen names that were most familiar to us, some readers preferred to either not read the original document or just ignore it. C’est la vie. An interesting side issue to that post was a discussion of recent grant recipients in light of the announcement of the 2006 Australia Council grants. Some see dark conspiracies. Others see names apparently unworthy. Misinformation runs rife.

The Australia Council’s Visual Arts Board offers grants in a number of categories. New Work is for Emerging and Established artists [as two sub categories] and includes funding for allied trades like arts writers, craftspeople, designers and new media and visual artists. This category is for support for “costs such as living expenses, assistance with costs incurred in making or researching new work or with the development of work for an exhibition, production and/or publication”. There is also a Fellowship Grant which Ozco says is to “provide extended support to craftspeople, designers, new media artists, visual artists and arts writers of outstanding ability to enable them to realise ambitious projects and develop their practice to new levels of achievement.” Program Grants is a category for supporting “a limited number of significant visual arts, craft and new media organisations, which deliver specific activities that enrich artistic practice in Australia” and is for one year. [This category is different to the ARI grants category Initiatives which closes on November 1]. Ozco also supports artists who want to be “entrepreneurial” through the pithily titled MMM: Maker to Manufacturer to Market program. If you come up with a good idea between the formal funding periods [say you and some friends want to travel o.s. to be a show or similar] you can apply for funding through Ozco’s Out Of Time category.

In the New Work [Emerging] category Ozco approved 50 grants out of 273 applications while in New Work [Established] they approved 70 grants from 322 applications. In Program Grants , 4 applications were approved from 5 applications and in Fellowships 5 were awarded from 26 received. In total, Ozco gave out $2,516,500. The VAB provides an overview of the New Work category and it makes for illuminating reading:

“The Board had very few issues with regard to the vast majority of applications. The commitment most artists have to clear expression and jargon-free project descriptions is much appreciated by the Board members. In the area of support material it is important to re-state that high quality images are essential, if an application is to succeed. Some new media DVDs did not follow the required format of five minutes as a single-track show reel – some applicants deviated from this recommendation and forwarded extra material. There has been a tendency for some artists to take an overly generous interpretation of the concept ‘Emerging’. Whilst no age limit is stipulated, it remains the Board’s view that the New Work Emerging sub-category is designed to ensure that new talent is clearly recognised.”

In short, make your DVDs brief and if you’re 50, forget it, you’re not emerging! Fellowships were described as “professional”. Yay. In the MMM category three applications were funded:

Forlano Design (WA) – For Penelope Forlano to develop her sculptural coat rack and hooks; ‘Wild Creeper’.

Greg Healey (SA) – For street and park furniture; ‘Mesa bench’, ‘T’ park bench.

Print Ink Studio (Vic) – For Lisa Carroll, Nadia Husiak and Jason Cesani to produce original wallpapers.

Out of Time grants fall into one of two categories Presentation and Promotion and Skills Development. Nine groups and individuals received support:

Presentation & Promotion

Art & Industry Biennial Trust -$20,000; James Angus and Emil Goh to participate in SCAPE 2006 Biennial of Art in Public Space, Christchurch, New Zealand.

CAB Burgos – $5,500; Gordon Bennett and Darren Siwes to exhibit in ‘nEUclear reactions’ exhibition, Spain.

Busan Biennale – $45,000; Group of 6 Australian artists to participate in Busan Biennale, Korea 2006.

Art Front Gallery – $15,000; Sue Pedley and Dadang Christanto to participate in Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan 2006.

Museum of Contemporary Art – $30,000; ‘the unquiet landscapes of Rosemary Laing’ to tour Denmark, 2006.

Experimenta Media Arts Inc. – $20,000; To tour ‘Under the Radar’ to the Institute of Contemporary Art, London & FACT, Liverpool in mid 2006

Skills & Arts Development

Sandra Lockwood – $5,801; To participate in Mashiko International Ceramics Festival and undertake research in Japan.

The Reality Co-op $3,708; Elisa Lee to attend ISEA 2006 San Jose, USA

Su Palmieri $4,150; Participate in masterclass workshop at North Lands Creative Glass Centre.

Now we’re down to the business end of the report – who got wot:

Program Grants:

Asia Australia Arts Centre – Gallery 4A [NSW] $36,500

MAAP [QLD] $50,000

Octopod Association Inc [NSW] $40,000

dLux Media Arts [NSW] $40,000

Fellowship Grants:

Cohn, Susan – Create jewellery/objects for touring exhibition & consolidation of international projects [VIC] $90,000

Gladwell, Shaun – Research & produce major works for several international biennales & commissions [NSW] $90,000

Gough, Julie – Create new sculptural/installation works based on the theme homeland & diaspora [QLD] $90,000

Morton, Callum – Create actual and virtual reconfigurations of urban spaces [VIC] $90,000

Truman, Catherine – Research, develop, create and document objects for and about the human body [SA] $90,000

New Work [Established] $20,000 each:

Antoniou, Andrew [NSW] – Create a drawing installation in collaboration with an animator

Arcus, Alexander [SA] – Create artist’s books for a touring exhibition

Ashby, Lyn [SA] – Create an editioned artist’s book

Aslanidis, John [VIC] – Create a series of major paintings

Bartholomew, Julie [NSW] – Research visual culture & porcelain production in China & create an installation

Bartley, Roseanne [VIC] – Create a body of jewellery that explores the necklace as a private and public emblem

Benfield, Guy [NSW] – Develop sculptural pavilions, performance work and videos

Berkowitz, Lauren [VIC] – Create a sculptural installation for exhibition at Sherman Galleries

Biggs, Lorraine [TAS] – Create a large scale mixed media drawing installation based on regional Tasmania

Birch, Stephen [NSW] – Create and develop sculptural installations with video and electronic components

Borgelt, Marion [NSW] – Research fabrication processes of glass, resin and acrylics for sculptural installations

Breadbox and Windowbox Galleries [WA] – Create a mixed media exhibition & publication documenting 5 years of Breadbox

Bufardeci, Louisa [USA] – Create work investigating the idea of representing time through images of soundwaves

Calvert, Matthew [TAS] – Create a body of sculptural work experimenting with injection moulded technology

Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro [NSW] – Create installation entitled ‘That’s Life’ at the Art Gallery of NSW

Cook, Raymond [QLD] – Create a series of photographs on traditions and community strategies

Curtis, Andrew [VIC] – Create a series of colour photographs exploring the illumination of faces by mobile

Curtis, Matthew [NSW] – Create new sculptural glass forms in a hybrid technique of blowing and mould casting

Desmond, Michael [ACT] – Write a history of contemporary Australian Art from 1990 to present

Do, Joung Mee [NSW] – Create a new body of metalwork based on traditional Korean folk painting

Douglas, Melanie [ACT] – Create glass works culminating in a solo exhibition at Sabbia Gallery, NSW

Elastic Projects [NSW] – Develop an online interactive computer interface to exhibit commissioned new works

Flavell, Susan [WA] – Create sculptural works resulting in exhibition and catalogue

Garson, Shannon [QLD] – Create new porcelain works

Gary Carsley [NSW] – Create new work for exhibition in Australia and Europe

Goldberg, Michael [NSW] – Develop a multi-space installation project dealing with social identity and reconciliation

Heffer, Cecilia [NSW] – Create a new body of textile lace works using photographic & digital technologies

Helyer, Nigel [NSW] – Create a series of sculptures based on structures & symmetries of marine micro-organisms

Hjorth, Larissa [VIC] – Create a series of photographs including a video component exploring mobile phones

Ishak, Raafat [VIC] – Research and create 190 small paintings exploring immigration policies

Kaiser, Virginia [NSW] – Create sculptural woven fibre forms inspired by outback NSW for exhibition at Object Gallery 2007

Kang, Dae Hoon [NSW] – Design and create a new body of metalwork

Kieran Boland, Jennifer Mills, Julia Powles [VIC] – Collaboratively research and create new works on paper for an exhibition

Kinnear, Jill [QLD] – Create digitally printed textiles about dislocation for exhibition in Australia & Scotland in 2008/9

Leamon, Simone [VIC] – Create life style concept products to prototypes & design documentation

Lynn, Victoria [VIC] – Research and write a book on the work of Julie Rrap

MacFarlane, Stewart [TAS] – Create work focusing on Tasmania’s regional coast for exhibition

Mateer, John [WA] – Research & write a book ‘Banner,Walk,Map,Snapshot’ on contemporary Australian Art & Global History

Mincham, Jeffery [SA] – Research & create wall mounted ceramic artworks for the built environment

Moore, Mary [WA] – Create two large self-portrait paintings for exhibition at National Portrait Gallery 2008/09

Moore, Thomas [SA] – Create, animate and exhibit dramatic arrangement of glass and mixed media

Nelson, Jan [VIC] – Create two fiberglass hand painted sculptures for exhibition

Nikou, Michelle [SA] – Create new work using bronze combined with various patinas & electroplating

O’Callaghan, Melanie [NSW] – Create a video work & accompanying catalogue for exhibition called ‘Marked’

One Winged Bandits [QLD] – Create a collaborative work of a billboard project and interactive website

Ou, Selina [VIC] – Create a series of photographic portraits for ‘Trans-versa: conversing across the south’

Ozolins, Brigita [TAS] – Create a new body of work that explores cryptography and early forms of writing

Phillips, Debra [NSW] – Create a new photographic series titled ‘The Turning’

Redfern, Dominic [VIC] – Create a large scale video installation for exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand

Rina Bernabei & Kelly Freeman [NSW] – Design a collection of furniture for the Australian home called ‘Decorative Domesticity’

Ringholt, Stuart [VIC] – Create sculptures from the resin of plants

Rogers, Catherine [NSW] – Create photographs combining analogue photographic technologies with contemporary digital processes

Rosetzky, David [VIC] – Create an immersive video installation and multi-media sculptures for solo exhibition

Rrap, Julieanne (Julie) [ACT] – Create mixed media work for survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, September 2007

Ryder, Julie [ACT] – Create digitally printed textiles & an installation for exhibition at Craft Victoria April/May 2007

Savvas, Nike [NSW] – Create Pop paintings and installations

Seeto, William [NSW] – Research architectural techniques to create site specific installations & a catalogue

Silver, Tim [NSW] – Create a photographic series on entropy at the Pacific Island of Tuvalu

TV Moore [NSW] – Create a large scale video installation project

Theunissen, Michele [WA] – Create a work exploring the hybridity of cultural exchange in colonialism

Turner, Christine [QLD] – Create new assemblage works on the theme of the ‘Suburban Goddess’

Turpin, Jennifer [NSW] – Create technical and artistic design of floating sculpture/installation titled ‘Lighter Than Air’

Varga, Emma [NSW] – Create a range of red fused cast glass objects to be exhibited at the JamFactory & Axia

Walking the Land Artists [VIC] – Create textile and mixed media works in response to the environs of the Great South West Walk, Vic

Wang, Zhiyuan – Create a large scale work in wood

West, Margaret [NSW] – Create jewellery investigating current implications & potential of still life objects

Williams, Maureen [VIC] – Research and create a new body of glass work for the American market for exhibition

Wilson, Martin [NSW]- Create a new series of portraiture and abstract woolen rugs

Wlodarczak-Sarnecka, Malgorzata [VIC] – Create a body of work ‘Cinderella II’ using drawing with performance and interaction

Zahalka, Anne [NSW] – Create photomedia works based on original 1930s-1960s pub paintings for exhibition