Let's meet the 2006 winners

NAVA announced the winners of the Freedman Travelling Scholarship Award for Emerging Artists in late July 2006 and had a presentation on the 31st July at Artspace.

Whilst it was an intimate affair, it provided Laurence Freedman and opportunity to meet most of the winning artists and present them with their Scholarship.

Taken from the media release NAVA issued at the time, here's some information about this year's winners and some images of their previous work.

We look forward to hearing from some of these artists in the next few weeks about their current travels.

Five Emerging Artists win Freedman Travel Scholarships

Five of Australia’s most promising young artists have been awarded the 2006 Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists. The $5,000 awards will support overseas travel to further their careers.

Travelling to China with the financial support of the Scholarship, Mimi Tong, whose work often crosses the divide between painting, architecture and traditional paper-folding, will investigate “local construction techniques such as the use of bamboo scaffolding”. Mimi will also participate in the artist-in-residence program at Red Gate in Beijing to further her investigation of contemporary Chinese urban environments.

Mimi Tong, Folding Interface, 2005
Photo credit: Cath Martin

Lori Kirk from Melbourne will join with an artist from Kyrgyzstan to erect a traditional yurt and adorn the surrounding area with agapanthus flower sculptures and other Australian popular culture icons, to create a “hybrid mix of the traditional and foreign”. The Scholarship will enable the collaborative project, Home Extension, to be developed by Lori and Kyrgyzstan artist Shaarbek Amankul (who was represented at the 2005 Venice Biennale) to be installed in the mountains of Bishkek in 2007.

Lori Kirk, Duck Activator
Photo credit: Brendan Finn

Heading to Vienna, James Hancock, from Sydney, will be using his award to participate in the artist-in-residence program at the invitation of the Austrian Federal Chancellery to further develop his city-based artworks and curatorial projects. “My fascination with what lies beneath the surface of the urban environment often leads me to collect pieces of the city to become a part of my artistic expression”.

James Hancock, Cut Here, 2004
Photo credit: Megan Hicks

Astra Howard from Sydney, will also be working with the urban environment, as part of the Cybermohalla project in Delhi, India which undertakes visual arts and social work with the slum communities of Delhi. With the money from the Scholarship, she “will extend upon previous research investigations into how city residents manipulate public spaces in order to survive”. For the duration of her project, Astra will be a resident at the established artist community of Sankriti Kendra and work with mentors at Sarai: New Media Initiative.

Astra Howard, Domesticity, 2005

Currently in Oslo, Norway, the Scholarship will enable Jade Boyd to continue investigating “the supernatural landscape”. Travelling to Norway, Iceland, Germany and Romania, Jade will research Nordic/Scandinavian mythological landscapes and areas important to Romantic history.

Jade Boyd, Untitled Video Installation

The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists was established in 2000 and is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). In the last 5 years it has already helped more than 30 emerging artists to broaden their perspectives through travel overseas.

Welcome to Freedman Travellers, the blog of the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists.

Each year 4-5 young emerging artists under 30 head overseas on formal and informal study programs to expand their experience and influence their art practice. We mostly see the effects of these experiences through their exhibitions and the success they go on to have.

Freedman Travellers is the blog where you can read about it too. It's where current travelling artists can post about where they're travels are taking them and the exciting things that they're getting up to. It is also a place where previous winners can talk about the effect that the travel and the scholarship has had on their artistic practice as well as updates about exhibitions they are participating and other events they may be involved in.

If you're interested in applying for the Scholarship, you can find out more about it here too. There are links to the application forms on the NAVA website, and occasional posts from the variety of people involved in the Scholarship - the Freedman Foundation, Curators and NAVA administration so you get a real idea of the fantastic opportunity this Scholarship is for emerging artists.