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2018 Australia Council Awards and National Indigenous Arts Awards open for nominations

The Australia Council for the Arts has today announced the opening of nominations for its two high profile national arts awards programs.

The prestigious Australia Council Awards recognise artists across a range of practice areas, including music, literature, emerging and experimental arts, visual arts, theatre, dance, and community arts and cultural development.

First Nations artists also have the opportunity to be nominated for the highly respected National Indigenous Arts Awards.

Australia Council Chair Rupert Myer AO, said the awards provide an important opportunity to celebrate Australia’s exceptional artistic talent, and to recognise leadership which contributes significantly to the vibrancy and dynamism of our national arts sector.

“We recognise the power of the arts to challenge, provoke, and inspire. These awards are a way of acknowledging the role artists play in shaping Australia’s cultural identity,” Mr Myer said.

Mr Myer said the past recipients are among Australia’s most celebrated artists.

“These awards honour artists who are central to Australia’s international reputation for excellent artistic practice, fearless experimentation and rich storytelling traditions.”

The National Indigenous Arts Awards recognise excellence in both established and emerging First Nations artists.

The Red Ochre Award for lifetime achievement has an extraordinary list of alumni, and for the first time in 2017 two were awarded, recognising Dr Ken Thaiday Senior and Lynette Narkle.

The Dreaming Award for emerging artists (aged 18-26) has supported impressive young Indigenous artists to create a major body of work through mentoring and partnerships. The 2017 recipient was Ancestress / Teila Watson.

The National Indigenous Arts Awards are decided by a national panel of Indigenous arts peers.

Nominations for both the Australia Council Awards and the National Indigenous Arts Awards close on October 3 2017.

Artists must be nominated by another individual or organisation and cannot self-nominate.

The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s principal arts funding and advisory body. The Australia Council is committed to making the vitality of our arts and culture more visible, and to recognising and supporting the evolving way that Australians make and experience art.  Our role is to support the unimagined along with the reimagined, the unknown and experimental along with the keenly anticipated. We are a champion for Australian arts both here and overseas.

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