Emerging Artist Award

The City of South Perth Emerging Artist Awards are intended to provide a unique opportunity for young artists and artists at the beginning of their professional creative careers to exhibit their work in a public exhibition and to compete with non-professional peers for prizes.  

For the purposes of the Emerging Artist Awards, the City of South Perth employs the following eligibility criteria for emerging artists:

a. All artists who are aged 25 years and under, and enter the Emerging Artist Awards as a Youth entrant are eligible.
b. All artists who are currently enrolled in studies towards a tertiary qualification in visual or fine arts are eligible.
c. All artists who have completed a tertiary qualification in visual or fine arts since 2014 are eligible.
d. All artists who can demonstrate that they are in the first five years of their professional practice as artists are eligible.
For all other artists the following eligibility criteria apply:
e. Artists who have not exhibited their work in a commercial* or public+ gallery (excluding exhibitions specifically for students or young and emerging artists) are eligible.
f. Artists who have not received awards, grants (including residences) or commissions for their artwork or art practice (excluding those specifically for students or young and emerging artists) are eligible.
g. Artists whose work has not been acquired for one or more public, institutional, corporate or significant private collections^ are eligible.
h. Artists who do not earn 50% or more of their income from the sale of artworks, or on the basis of their recognised expertise as an artist (eg as an academic, teacher, workshop facilitator etc) are eligible. 

Artists may contact the City of South Perth to discuss their eligibility if there are any queries about these criteria.  

Where required, the City will make a determination on eligibility with reference to reliable, publicly available information and the information supplied by entrants, and the City’s determination will be final.

Definitions:
* Commercial Gallery – for this purpose a commercial gallery is defined as any bricks-and-mortar or online business that represents and sells the work of artists. (Excluding: online shops owned and managed by artists exclusively to sell their own work; and exhibitions in which the gallery space was rented by the artist).
+ Public Gallery – for this purpose a public gallery is defined as gallery or museum, whether privately or publicly owned, that holds public exhibitions of artworks, but is not primarily in the business of selling art. (Excludes exhibitions in which the gallery space was rented by the artist).
^ Collections – significant collections include (but are not limited to) those of government organisations, museums, art galleries, hospitals, universities, churches, and large corporate (eg banks and mining companies) and private collections with an established public profile.

Photos of Emerging Artist Award winners will be published on the City's Facebook and in the image gallery below.

To request a copy of any of the award photos, please contact the City's events team on 9474 0777 or email events@southperth.wa.gov.au.