by Shane Sody

The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize will be returning in 2023, with a record prize pool of $50,000.

Generous donations from two key benefactors have allowed APA to boost prize money and increase the number of prizes.

Barring any unfortunate surprises with pandemics or other tragedies we are planning to stage the 2023 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize exhibition at the Adelaide Festival Centre for a seven-week period, commencing with an opening night on 24 March 2023.

A panel of five independent judges will be appointed, to assess entries and pick prize winners.  Our panel is still being finalised but will include at least two prominent Australian artists, an internationally known curator, and a representative of the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA). [Update: 14 May 2022. Judges have been announced.]

Adelaide is the Festival City, with a world-renowned reputation for an Arts Festival over more than 60 years. This City is also famed for your world-unique Park Lands.  An Art Prize focussing attention on your Park Lands, therefore, capitalises on and promotes both of this city's strengths.  It helps to showcase and raise awareness, through the works of hundreds of artists, the irreplaceable jewels of Park Lands that garland this unique city.

Entries for the 2023 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize will open on 15 August 2022.

Sponsors and donors are still being sought.  However, we are quietly confident that the City of Adelaide will repeat its 2020 sponsorship of $15,000, after receiving a recommendation to that effect, on 31 March, from Kadaltilla/The Adelaide Park Lands Authority.

We are very grateful for substantial personal contributions that have come from the Presiding Member of the Park Lands Authority, the Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor, and the Authority's Deputy Chair, Kirsteen Mackay.  Their donations over the past 18 months have given us confidence to announce the increased prize money.

Subject to consultation with specific sponsors who might choose to sponsor a named commendation prize, and/or a distinct different category, the range of prize categories and prize money on offer in 2023 will be no less than:

• First prize                        $20,000

• Young Artist (u25)             $2,000

• School student                  $2,000

• NFT category prize           $2,000

• People’s Choice                $2,000

• Emerging artist $2,000

• Judges Commendations: 10 prizes of $2,000 each.

           TOTAL                                $50,000

SPONSORSHIP OR DONATION

You can become a donor to, or a sponsor of, this community event, or a sponsor of a named commendation prize. There is a tax distinction between a sponsor and a donor. Sponsors receive publicity in our marketing of the event. Donors who want to claim a tax deduction cannot receive any benefit from a donation. We can publicly acknowledge a tax-deductible donation, but cannot enlarge the acknowledgement into any form of advertising. You can make a tax-deductible donation through the Australian Cultural Fund, where we have initiated a new project specifically to receive tax-deductible donations for the 2023 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize.

Alternatively, if you are not concerned about getting a tax deduction for your donation, then you can bypass the Australian Cultural Fund and donate to APA directly. Donations of $500 or more received directly to APA will also be publicly acknowledged.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. To discuss the best option for you, please contact the Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize convener, Nataliya Sard, on nsard.artprize@gmail.com or call 0410 482 797.

BACKGROUND

The Adelaide Park Lands Association has four streams of activities:  Explore, Inspire, Protect and Restore.  The Art Prize is the cornerstone and feature of our “Inspire” range of activities.

It is a non-acquistive art prize, with all works for sale, at prices set by each artist.  In 2021, art sales totalled $42,000.

The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize has been held biennially since 2014, albeit with a 12-month COVID-caused delay to completion of the 2020 event.

The major sponsor is the City of Adelaide, with a wide range of other sponsors and donors who have helped in past years to make the event a success.

From humble beginnings in 2014 it has grown to become one of the three major Art Prizes in SA, along with the Art Gallery’s Ramsay Art Prize and the SA Museum’s Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, surpassing the prize pool of many other SA art prizes.

See the details of past Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize events, including images of previously successful art works, at www.parklandsart.com