by Carla Caruso

The biennial Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize is open for entries again – and a new category for the 2025 competition is ‘artist living with a disability’.

The category, among nine others, was instigated by our new Art Prize chair, Rosemary Warmington AM.

Along with being a painter herself, Rosemary was previously the CEO of Carers SA, a not-for-profit organisation that provides services to family carers.

The new category celebrates inclusivity and diversity, recognising the exceptional talent and creativity of artists living with disabilities. Its prize is being sponsored by Minda, the largest non-government disability support organisation in the state.

Many clients at Minda take art classes as part of its MyPath day options program. (Other MyPath activities include cookery, IT, cottage craft, swimming, dance, and more.)

But back to the art classes… One popular option is pottery, where clients can learn the basic skills of using clay and its in-house kilns at Minda’s North Brighton location. Anything clients make, they can take home or give as gifts to friends and family.

One such client, Ann, has been doing a day-long pottery class via the program for the past year.

Among the items Ann has made are ceramic mushrooms, Christmas decorations (which she’ll sell at the upcoming Minda Community Christmas Carols and Markets), tea plates, and bowls – sometimes inscribed with romantic messages for her boyfriend.

“I like making all the shapes I like and making Christmas trees,” Ann says. “I like making everything I want.”

She also enjoys the social side of the class. “They’re all my special friends and they all like me. I like the staff, and [pottery] gives me something to do.”

Disability support worker Beth Woof runs the pottery program at Minda, from Monday to Friday.

“Every day there’s a different group of people that come along, who all have intellectual disabilities. Everyone’s abilities are different, so the day is catered to their abilities, but everyone gives everything a try.

“MyPath is about creating new pathways in the brain, and through repetition, [what you learn] becomes a new skill.”

Making pottery, she says, is a lengthy process. “First, we’ll make something, dry it on the drying racks, then it goes in what’s called a ‘bisque fire’.

“After that, we paint it, which is under-glazing, and then we glaze it with a powdered or liquid glass. The last firing is a glaze firing, then the piece is ready to take home.”

And if things go awry during the process? “Remember as [US painter] Bob Ross said, ‘There are no mistakes in art, just happy accidents.’ You can always paint over it,” Beth says.

Along with clients crafting designs, there are some participants who focus solely on cutting up the clay.

“They’re the recyclers. They help us with the backbone of the pottery program. We’ve got a pugmill, which is a big ‘sausage-maker’,” Beth says.

“We collect the scraps and then push it into a big sausage machine, and it comes out brand new. We never throw away any clay.”

When clients want a break from pottery, she says: “We’ll go for a walk [by the beach] and check out the dogs on the boardwalk and people-watch.”

For Beth, she’s “blessed” to do what she does. “I’m living my best life, getting to hang out with the coolest people, who just shine light on every situation.”

Enter the 2025 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize

The prize for Artist Living With a Disability is just one of the category prizes that will be offered in the 2025 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize. Entries are open until 31 January 2025. The entry fee is $50. School students have a discounted $25 fee. Enter here: https://parklandsart.org/

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.  

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. That is the main reason for our Park Quiz event on 9 October.