by Carla Caruso

Entries have opened for our biennial Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize and a new face is at the helm of organising the competition: Nataliya Sard.

Nataliya is one fascinating woman. She’s a senior financial planner, a former professional dancer, and a passionate advocate for the arts. We chatted to her about next year’s contest, her background, and plenty more.

Hi, Nataliya. Please share how you came to be the chair of the Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize organising committee. Have you always been an art lover?

I have always had a big passion for the arts. My first career was in ballet. I was a professional Russian ballerina and dedicated 13 years of my life to this extremely hard but abundantly rewarding artform.

Ever since then, my love and appreciation for the arts has only kept growing. [During] the last six years, I have been a big supporter of the arts community through my contribution via various organisations, including my board position at the Helpmann Academy Foundation Board.

We have an enormous amount of talent here in South Australia and I’m always up for an opportunity to support and showcase it.

I was invited to help APA with this wonderful community project earlier this year. I recognised the challenge but was also quite excited about it. It is an enormous responsibility and I’m honoured to have the trust of our committee to continue the legacy of the important impact delivered by the Art Prize.  

Can you tell us a bit about the rest of the committee?

We have a power team! Shane Sody, APA President, brings his passion for our Park Lands, which is core to our values that drive the direction we take with the Art Prize.

Marina Ritchie – our marketing guru. Marina’s expertise in all things marketing have helped to take our engagement with the key stakeholders to the next level. Her vision on how we can make the Art Prize better-known is refreshing and exciting.

Eden Dickin – our social media expert. Eden works tirelessly to promote the Art Prize through a number of social channels, as well as engaging media outlets to portray our message. His role is instrumental in engaging the arts community to participate and make submissions for the Art Prize. 

Henry Davis – tax lawyer by trade and our sponsorships and donations go-to person. Henry’s skills in networking and his ability to promote the importance of the Art Prize to our community has been instrumental in raising funds for the prizes.

What is the committee looking for in entries? What might help set entrants apart?

We are looking for submissions that highlight the beauty, rarity, and the fragility of the Open, Green, Public Park Lands that garland our city. Any form of art that would leave a prolonged impact on viewers is welcome for entry in the Art Prize.

Our honourable judging panel will be selecting the finalists and winners. Here is what some of the judges had to say. Perhaps it offers some inspirations for the artists.

Artists interpret the social, economic, religious, and cultural makeup of our society, and the free expression of their views, thoughts and experiences provide us with a window into our world and allow us to see things that, in many cases, may not be immediately apparent. Through their work, we confront our political and communal conscience, and we are much richer for it. – Khai Liew                             

I believe artists can inspire and influence the protection of the Park Lands by expressing their individual view as one of many which we can all enjoy – the shapes and colours, for a start, can be stunning. How awful it would be to have endless buildings or concrete instead of beautiful trees and plants. That would be stifling. We need the Park Lands so that we can breathe and feed our imagination. – Loene Furler

An Art Prize in the Park Lands can draw attention to the huge importance of maintaining our Park Lands. Plants give us everything; they keep us alive, and we need to respect them more. Artists can draw inspiration from the botanical world around us and hopefully lead [us] to an increased reflection on climate change. I think awareness of this issue, and hope that things can improve, are both needed urgently. – Angela Valamanesh

Please tell us about some of the behind-the-scenes activity that’ll happen before winners are chosen. How mammoth a workload lies ahead?

Where do I start (big sigh, with a smile)?

We are now in the phase of engaging the arts community to encourage artists of all ages, from all countries, to submit their works. We are anticipating close to 500 entries over the coming six months.

Once the entries are closed, our judging panel will then have the task of selecting 70 to 80 finalists, based on the images of the works submitted by the artists. This is an enormous amount of work that has to be done within a timeframe of a week.

We will then work with our exhibition curators to construct an exhibition, coordinate artwork deliveries with the finalists, organise installations and have it ready for the judges to pick the winners. Judges will go through the exhibition a day before it opens to the public.

This is just the coordination of the entries and the exhibition itself.

There are many other matters that must be handled along the way, including continuing work on sponsorship and donations, organising the opening night event, reaching out to as many art centres and schools as possible, ongoing promotion of the event, and management of any enquiries that come through from the artists and other key stakeholders.

Please name a few of your favourite artists.

There are so many that I admire, it is impossible to pick favourites. I also love different styles and types of works, but here are a couple that come to mind right now:

Christopher Meadows, an SA artist who was a winner of the Art Prize in 2018. His work highlights the significance of the small things that are around us all the time but that we never pay that much notice to in day-to-day life - yet those things shape our perspective.

Helen Fuller, an Adelaide artist whose practice has traversed painting, photography, sculpture, and installation. I hope people had a chance to see her ‘handmade terracotta objects: vessels of mysterious function’, which was developed for the Adelaide Festival earlier this year.

Angela and Hossein Valamanesh, for their amazing works through many decades, and especially their recent installations at the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State. Such deep, thought-provoking works. We are honoured to have Angela as one of our judges.

My recent encounter with Ryan Presley’s work has left me in awe of his talent and profound storytelling. Highly recommend seeing his exhibition, Fresh Hell, currently showing at ACE Gallery.

Your favourite spots in the Adelaide Park Lands?

The Victoria Park wetlands [Pakapakanthi / Park 16] – what a fabulous urban environment. Adored by all visitors, including four-legged ones. Look forward to spending a lot more time there as the spring weather brings the sunshine.

The Park Lands around the River Torrens (Elder Park, Grundy Gardens, and others along the river) – beautiful way to spend Sunday mornings amongst nature. I try to get out for a long walk as a regular thing when the weather permits.

Finally, what keeps you busy when you’re not undertaking committee duties?

My other passion is the work that I do for my clients. I’m a financial adviser with a specific focus on helping clients reach their full financial potential.

If I’m not at work or busy with the Art Prize, you can probably find me at an exhibition or a concert at the UKARIA Cultural Centre. Classical music is another big passion of mine and UKARIA delivers it in a way that leaves you illuminated for a prolonged time.