by Rosemary Warmington, AM, Chair of the 2025 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize
Is Art intended to express beauty, or is it intended to make us think?
We believe it’s about both.
Artist preparing works for the 2025 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize are no doubt thinking of the beauty of your Park Lands.
They might be wondering how to capture the morning light, the sky in the evening glow or noticing the moodiness when it rains and the boldness of the bright greens of the grass in winter.
Sunrise over the McEwen arboretum off War Memorial Drive in Red Gum Park / Karrawirra (Park 12)
They might be thinking of the colours needed for the browns and golds and darks of dried grass and the falling bark of summer days.
Then there are the bike riders in the morning fog, the dogs and walkers on the ovals. There’s so much to see and express through art.
“Life” - Lloma Mackenzie hand-coloured linocut. A finalist in the 2023 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize.
All of us can just soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the native flowers and plants, the noise of the rowdy cockatoos and forgive the gorgeous groups of wood ducks that sometimes cross our roads, stopping traffic in its tracks to let them pass.
This is all part of the joy and beauty of your Park Lands.
Lefevre Park / Nantu Wama (Park 6)
Art also makes us think. It helps us remember the history. We think of the planner Colonel William Light and his vision to create Park Lands that garland our Adelaide city centre.
Paul Zalkauskas: “Park Yourself” - a finalist in the 2020 edition of the Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize.
Art makes us wonder about the species that live here, the endangered native animals that find their home amongst the old trees that remain standing. We enjoy the trees that shade us in the hot afternoon summer sun, trees that we can no longer find on our urban footpaths.
Your Adelaide Park Lands make us think about the beauty of this country we live in and how we can save this precious space in a hostile, warming environment.
All this reminds us that this is our community heritage as a public space and inspires us to cherish and protect it.
Touch football in Carriageway Park / Tuthangga (Park 17)
Your Adelaide Park Lands are Open, Green, Public. They are yours to enjoy, with your community.
Your Adelaide Park Lands don’t distinguish between any of us - our wealth, culture or age. When you’re on the country in your Park Lands you are just present in a time and place. How good is it, to have this in your life?
The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize is distinguished by the amount and number of prize categories that are on offer. It’s open to so many people. It’s distinguished by being a truly community-based Art Prize. It enables all the entrants to express their love for your Park Lands - their appreciation of beauty.
Bermadette Hind: “A Space For You”; A finalist in the 2023 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize. (Emerging Artist category)
The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize also encourages all of us to think about heritage, longevity and how we continue to protect your Adelaide Park Lands as Open, Green, Public.
The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize not only depends upon, but requires community participation - our sponsors and donors, our entrants, judges and all our volunteers who administer the Art Prize.
For me, it has all the elements that should make us proud of being South Australian - heritage, community, public space, nature, environment, donors and supports and of course our marvellous diverse art scene.
Join with us. This is what the Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize brings to South Australia.
We are very proud to be able to offer it again, for a sixth edition, in 2025.
Enter the 2025 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize
Create an artwork, in any medium, responding to the theme, ‘Inspire’.
Entries in all categories are open until 31 January 2025.
The entry fee for adults is $50. School students have a discounted $25 fee.
Prizemoney of $2,500 in the school student category will be divided equally between primary and secondary students.
Enter here: https://parklandsart.org/
Students in financial hardship can apply for a funded entry fee by application, in which students provide information on their circumstances. Students can apply for this by emailing terrimoore.art@gmail.com, briefly explaining why they need their entry fees waived.
Please contact terrimoore.art@gmail.com if you have any questions.
The exhibition of finalists will be held in March-April 2025.
Prizes
First prize will again be $20,000. There will be at least seven category prizes of $2,500 each, making a total prize pool of at least $37,500.
In addition to a first prize of $20,000, there will be at least seven category prizes, offered for: Multimedia (including digital art and photography), School Student, First Nations, People's Choice (sponsored by the Royal Adelaide Show Society), Three-dimensional (i.e. sculptures, craft etc), Artist Living with a Disability (sponsored by Minda), and Emerging Artist.
Sponsor a prize category
Claim the naming rights for one or more of these categories within the 2025 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize: https://parklandsart.org/support-the-art-prize/
Prize pool expansion?
We are still hopeful of securing additional sponsors and donors to boost the prize pool further, and award even more prizes than those outlined above. Our aim is to boost overall prize money to match the record $50,000 that was paid out in 2023. You can help with a tax-deductible donation through the Australian Cultural Fund.
See details here: https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q000000IWQe/adelaide-park-lands-art-prize-2025
Rosemary Warmington AM is a South Australian practising visual artist. Her paintings are drenched in colour, influenced by the natural world. Rosemary has consistently exhibited with both solo and group exhibitions and has been shortlisted for a number of South Australian Art Prizes.
For many years Rosemary was the CEO of Carers SA, a not-for-profit organisation that provides services to family carers. In 2012, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her contribution to the community.
