By Benjamin Millar
Entries are open for the second running of The Footscray Art Prize, with $17,500 of prizes on offer.
More than 800 entries were received in the first year of the biennial prize in 2017 and organisers are expecting an even bigger response to the four categories of the 2019 prize.
Entrants will be in the running for a main prize valued at $10,000, the Street Art Prize valued at $5000, the Tertiary Art Prize valued at $1500 and the Young Artists Prize valued at $500 for each of the primary and secondary student categories.
The winner of the street art prize will also have the chance to recreate their entry on a prominent Footscray wall.
The prize is a collaboration between Victoria University, Maribyrnong council, Footscray Community Arts Centre and the Rotary Club of Footscray.
FCAC director Martin Paten said the Footscray Art Prize is a wonderfully curated visual sensation of experiences, ideas, memories and moments expressed by artists from all over the country.
VU vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins said the Footscray Art Prize celebrates the richness of Footscray on a national platform.
“I was particularly pleased with the interest in the Tertiary and Young Artists Prizes, which resulted in an incredibly diverse exhibition that showcased the next generation of Australian artists,” he said.
Judges in the 2019 Footscray Art Prize will be Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) director Katrina Sedgwick, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA) curator Hanna Presley, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) head of painting Raafat Ishak and Art Play founding director Simon Spain.
Entries close on March 15 and a shortlist will be announced in April.
Shortlisted works will be displayed at Footscray Community Arts Centre and VU at MetroWest. Winners will be announced in June.
Entries: www.footscrayartprize.com
