The Thousands

Of all the ‘get rich quick schemes’ you could think of, this has to be one of the worst. The Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship is one of the most lucrative awards for emerging artists in Australia, but also one of the hardest to bag. It provides an emerging visual artist with $60,000 to undertake a two year program in their choice of study or training overseas. So not only are the winners selected based on artistic merit, but also the potential that the chosen program of study has to their creative and professional development.

The late Helen Lempriere was a leading Australian painter known for her confident and distinctive expressions between the 1930s and the 1970s. She was one of the few Australian painters to establish an international reputation in the 1950s and 1960s.**This year’s finalists with foreseeable futures include Stuart Bailey, Lauren Brincat, Brown Council, Mary MacDougall and Angelica Mesiti to name a few.

Getting rich is hard. Winning a scholarship is harder, especially when you are up against Australia’s best emerging artists. The winner will be announced Thursday night!