Hawkesbury Art Prize

The Hawkesbury Art Prize Inc. is a non-acquisitive art award originally established in 2011 by Robyn Williams and Purple Noon Gallery as part of a Western Sydney University project. The biennial art prize is for a painting or collage that is inspired by contemporary Australian identity. Open to Australian artists, the prize is awarded for the most outstanding work created in the past 12 months. The theme invites artists to respond to the concept of contemporary identity in Australian life.

The theme often helps artists explain the rapidly changing environment in which they live, or conversely, promotes diverse portrayals of history, landscape, place, and ways of seeing. The ensuing exhibition showcases the freshness and vitality of the creative artists that enrich our Australian communities. The winning works form a collection of modern and contemporary art reflecting evolution in Australian identity, landscape and arts practice in the contemporary era. The prize has been set up in Hawkesbury as a not for profit project. The prize excludes photography, textiles, embroidery, and sculpture. The art prize is judged by a panel made up of three notable figures in the Australian art world.