Entries are now open for people wanting to take part in east Auckland’s most prestigious annual art contest.
The Estuary Art and Ecology Award is staged at Uxbridge Arts and Culture in Howick and is the only contemporary art prize in the country with ecology at its core.
Uxbridge visual arts programme co-ordinator Ashleigh King says artists who enter are invited to “research and respond to the Tamaki Estuary, to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway and encourage action against its pollution”.
The contest offers a prize pool of $10,000 with the winning artworks needing to be intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
Entries will be judged by Benjamin Work, an Auckland artist who has Tongan and Scottish heritage.
He lives beside the Tamaki Estuary in Pakuranga where throughout his life he has experienced the changing complexities and pressures upon that unique ecosystem.
Work is the recipient of the 2019 CMBB Para Site International Art Residency in Hong Kong and a 2021 finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award.
He’s also a published author and exhibits nationally and internationally.
The competition’s partners and sponsors this year include the Howick Local Board, Tamaki Estuary Environmental Forum, Rice Family Partnership, and Gordon Harris Art Supplies.
Entries close at midnight on May 27.
An exhibition of work by finalists will be staged from July 1 to August 26 at Uxbridge Arts and Culture.
The awards ceremony is at 2.30pm on July 1.
The contest costs $25 to enter and forms are available online at the Uxbridge website, www.uxbridge.org.nz.
