Debra Porch Award: Visual Arts Residency

One Australian artist and one Thai artist will be supported to undertake the residency. The successful Thai recipient will receive a grant of $13,000 AUD to cover artist per diems, travel and insurance costs and living expenses. Accommodation and studio access will be provided by UNSW Galleries. 

The successful Australian recipient will receive a grant of $10,000 AUD to cover artist per diems, travel and insurance costs, living expenses and accommodation. Studio access will be provided by SAC Gallery, however the artist is responsible for arranging their own accommodation.

The award amounts to the selected recipients reflect the average costs of living in the respective cities. 

Host organisations will also provide curatorial care and support during the residency period. The residency duration is 6 weeks. 

We encourage you to speak to us about any specific access needs or support you may require to participate in the residency, including support workers, interpreting and childcare costs.

This program is designed for visual artists who work in an interdisciplinary and/or gallery context and who are: 

• mid-career artists in Australia or Thailand. Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of either country 
• have a visual arts and/or interdisciplinary practice with an interest in material exploration
• committed to a long-term engagement with Thailand, and vice versa.   

You cannot apply if:

• you have an overdue grant report
• you owe money to Creative Australia
• you are an organisation.

Creative Australia and industry advisors, in consultation with host organisations, will consider applications according to the assessment criteria. Successful applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by early May 2025. 

Applicants must address the following assessment criteria: 

1. Artistic merit

• suitability of your practice to the residency program and its artistic environment/offer
• quality of work previously produced, and public and peer response to your work.

2. Viability

• suitability of your proposal to the residency program
• the skills and artistic ability of your collaborators (if applicable) and their relevance to the proposed activity
• realistic and achievable planning, resource use and evaluation.

3. Impact on career

• how the proposed activity strengthens your artistic practice
• the relevance and timeliness of the proposed activity
• how the proposed activity strengthens your capacity as an arts professional, particularly in relation to international development and collaboration.

You should submit support material with your application. Assessors may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your project. 

We do not accept application-related support material submitted via post. Application-related material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online, or need advice on what type of material to submit, please  contact us. 

There are three types of support material you may submit: 

1. Support material 

This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic or cultural work. 

Types of support material we accept 

Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks). 

You can provide up to three URLs (weblinks) that link to content that is relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images, or written material. 

These URLs can include a total of: 

• 10 minutes of video and/or audio recording 

• 10 images 

• 10 pages of written material (for example, excerpts of literary writing). 

Please note:  Our assessors will not access any URLs that require them to log in or sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to Spotify or other applications that require users to log in or pay for access. 

If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected like Vimeo, please provide the password in the password field on the application form. 

Other accepted file formats 

If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats: 

• video (MP4, QuickTime, and Windows Media) 

• audio (MP3 and Windows Media) 

• images (JPEG and PowerPoint) 
• written material (Word and PDF).

2. Biographies and CVs

You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project. 

Brief bios or CV information should be presented as a single document no longer than two A4 pages in total. 

3. Letters of support 

Individuals, groups, or organisations can write letters in support of your project. A support letter should explain how the project or activity will benefit you, other artists or arts professionals, participants, or the broader community. It can also detail the support or involvement of key project partners, or evidence of consultation. 

If relevant to your activity, letters of support must provide evidence of appropriate permissions and support from First Nations organisations, communities, and Elders. Please refer to the First Nations Protocols for more information. 

You can include up to five letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page. 

We strongly encourage applicants who identify as First Nations, from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, people with disability, and people living in regional and remote areas to apply for this opportunity. 

Our programs and processes are designed for accessibility and best use by a diverse demographic. Please contact us at least 2 weeks prior to the closing date to discuss your specific access and support requirements. 

Your application must comply with the following Protocols. We may contact you to request further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding. 

Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts 

All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to these Protocols, and provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here. 

2024 residents

Nathan Beard

Nathan Beard is a multidisciplinary artist who draws from his Australian-Thai heritage to unpack the porous nature of culture and memory. In exploring associations of ‘Thainess’ through archives, family history and popular media, Beard’s work reveals the slippery range of influences which shape identity.

Recent exhibition highlights include A Moment in Extended Crisis, UTS Gallery (2024) and A Puzzlement, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2023) and Perth Institute of Con-temporary Art (2022). He is currently participating in the Gertrude Studio Program (2023-25). He is represented by sweet pea, Boorloo/Perth, and FUTURES, Naarm/Melbourne.

Photo: Kai Wasikowski

Naraphat Sakarthornsap

Naraphat Sakarthornsap lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand, and utilises photography and installation art to explore themes of social inequality and gender discrimination. Flowers, meticulously chosen by him, become central characters in his narratives, each blossom imbued with symbolic meaning. These floral arrangements act as keys, unlocking hidden messages within the artworks. At times, the delicate beauty of these flowers might hint at a deeper emotional core, perhaps reflecting personal struggles the artist has endured.

His early works grappled with the challenge of preserving a flower’s fleeting beauty. This artistic pursuit later evolved into a powerful critique of societal power structures. He invites viewers to look beyond the surface beauty of his floral arrangements, seeking the deeper messages encoded within. These messages may resonate with those who grapple with societal expectations and the pervasive inequalities that exist.

Photo: Naraphat Sakarthornsap

2023 residents

Camille Laddawan / ลัดดาวัลย์

Artist, b. 1990
Wurundjeri Country, Australia

Camille Laddawan’s practice is centred on beading and extends to etching, painting and photography. Her beading work is often inscribed with fragments of text and music notation by way of a visual code. Through this code, her work comments on the nature of institutional language, and the difficulties of navigating it. By drawing on personal experiences of coming into contact with legal, welfare and healthcare bodies, Camille’s work seeks to make these experiences and ways of communicating visible.

Tintin Cooper

Tintin Cooper is a mixed race artist from Bangkok.

She grew up in over 17 countries and cites this chaotic influence on her works, which span image and video appropriations, light works, painting on ceramic tiles and sculpture.

Her works are often humorous and appropriate pop culture images and memes (popular themes include football, self defense, the army and war, yoga and pseudo-spirituality fads), which are then deconstructed across various media.

Recent projects include ceramic tile installations for Soho House Bangkok and London, and an NFT series in conjunction with astrologer Jessica Adams and media artist Anita Bacic.

2022 residents

Claudia Koguchi (for a residency at artisan, Brisbane, Australia)

Claudia’s work leans into the personal. She can’t resist inserting the people in her life into her paintings. Claudia often depicts herself and those around her carrying out everyday leisure activities or exploring imaginary moments. These scenarios are used to delve into various interpersonal dynamics and emotional states, navigating the often tricky side to relationships. For Claudia, life is as equally malleable as fiction and she bends the narrative truth of both towards each other until they meet. Her works are imaginary negotiations of real relationships and real feelings.

Oscillating between painting and textile, both mediums hum with the same energy. The depictions of Claudia’s characters are large, bold, and cartoonish. She employs a sometimes coded colour palette, but always primary and bright. With a playful ease, Claudia embraces ugliness with no subject or bodily aspect too taboo for the canvas. Dressing herself and her associates in a range of real and made up personas, the audience is invited to do the same. In a world where everything is real and everything is made up, you can be anyone you want.

Andy Butler (for a residency at Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland, New Zealand)

Andy Butler is an artist, writer and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne.

As an artist, he works across moving image, installation and painting. His work has been exhibited at Arts House, Bus Projects, Firstdraft, The Substation, Footscray Community Art Centre and more. He has undertaken residencies with Parramatta Art Studios and the Powerhouse Museum, Green Papaya Art Projects in Manila through Asialink and more. In 2021 he was a recipient of the Creative Victoria Creators Fund grant to undertake research into the archetype of the white saviour within the archives of the National Library of Australia.

His writing has been published to wide acclaim, in outlets including frieze, The Saturday Paper, The Monthly, Art Guide and more, as well as in numerous anthologies and exhibition catalogues.

Independent curatorial projects include Always there and all a part (2017) at BLINDSIDE, and Those Monuments Don’t Know Us (2019) at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. He was most recently the (Acting) Artist Director at West Space.

He currently sits on the board of the Emerging Writers Festival, and was previously on the board of SEVENTH Gallery.