Recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships for outstanding talent and exceptional courage
I am incredibly honoured and grateful to receive this significant fellowship and recognition. It is an acknowledgment of the courage and effort that I have often had to show in order to make the work that I do. I feel both humbled and truly overwhelmed. This fellowship provides me both the opportunity to take on even more ambitious projects for the next few years, as well as the encouragement to do so with renewed effort. It is also a great honour to be placed in such distinguished ranks as those of the past recipients – many of whom have been great inspirations to me at one time or another, and all of whom have made important contributions to the arts, culture and life of Australia. Again, I am deeply honoured by this recognition and looking forward to the new possibilities that lie ahead.
First awarded in 2011, the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships provide unrestricted grants of $160,000 tax free over two years to individual Australian artists, arts managers and thought leaders in the humanities. Specific outcomes for the Fellowships are not required.
The two criteria used to select Fellows are: outstanding talent and exceptional courage. Specifically, this talent and courage relates to the artistic practice of the Fellows and not to cases of personal hardship.
Nominations are welcome for artists and arts managers across the entire spectrum of the visual, performing, interdisciplinary, new media and literary arts. Consideration is also given to arts managers and thought leaders in the humanities. Applicants to the program may not self-nominate and must include two referees who are not the nominator.
The Fellowships are intended for artists in their ‘early mid-career’ – to be eligible, nominees must be in the first seven to fifteen years of their creative practice. They are also intended for artists who will primarily be resident in Australia for the two years of their Fellowship.
