Visual Arts
Presented to
Johannes Kuhnen
for his magnificent and important retrospective exhibition held at the ANU School of Art Gallery in May, which will travel around Australia, and the book that accompanied it.
Visual Arts
Presented to
Julie Ryder
for her exhibition Generate at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in March. She successfully demonstrated her ability to bring together her interest and knowledge of science with her professional art practice in an exhibition that looked at the legacy of Charles Darwin in a new and stimulating way.
Visual Arts
Presented to
Gilbert Riedelbauch
for his exhibition Highlights at Craft ACT. The artist successfully integrated his knowledge of modern technology and traditional craft skills in this exhibition of free standing lamps that were practical as well as beautiful craft objects.
Visual Arts
Presented to
Geoffrey Farquhar-Still
for his show at M16, Reflex - A Show of Mechanical Poetry, a standout exhibition of mechanical oddities which he both curated, and also exhibited in. It was a tight, compact show in which the kinetic sculptures communicated with one another, and the audience, in an absurd, delightful and slightly sinister manner. For his personal contribution, and his direction of the other artists.
Visual Arts
Presented to
Frank Thirion
for his exhibition Constellation was an atmospheric installation of paintings and sound that imagined the southern skies on a cloudless night. Drawing upon the traditional materials and cultural knowledge of indigenous and non-indigenous Australians he produced a body of work that responds to the universe as our familiar home as well as a wondrous spectacle of infinity and cosmic mystery.
Visual Arts
Presented to
Min Mae
for insinuating her tableaux vivants into the collective psyche of creative Canberra. Unique in Australia, her challenging works cross genre and art form using the diverse environments of galleries, shops and the streets to generate stimulating unions between visual artists, dancers, actors, writers, musicians and their audiences.
Visual Arts
Presented to
Jas Hugonnet
for curatorial excellence, in particular the original and provocative concept exhibitions Soft Animators and Custom Made for CraftACT.
Visual Arts
A Special Critics’ Award to
Helen Maxwell
for being a leading supporter of women artists, including indigenous artists and more recently all artists; she has supported emerging artists and provided a showcase for established artists who might not have another opportunity for exhibition in Canberra; she has supported less well known indigenous artists. Helen Maxwell has worked in the visual arts for over 20 years and the cessation of her gallery is a tragic loss for the Canberra visual arts scene.
A Posthumous Award for Poetry to
Tatjana Lukic
for her book, La La, La, her first poetry collection in English, which has a strong sense of the poet's personality and her resilience under the threat of political violence and personal stresses.
Poetry
Presented to
Julian Fleetwood and the Traverse Poetry organisers
for providing themed monthly events, workshops, support and inspiration for emerging ACT poets.
Poetry
Presented to
Omar Musa
for an excellent 12 months in which he won the Australian Poetry Slam at the Sydney Opera House, published a book, The Clocks, released his first album, The Massive EP, and recorded his second album.
Writing
Presented to
Kel Robertson
for his excellent and award-winning crime novel, Smoke and Mirrors, set in Canberra.
Writing
Presented to
Jackie French
for faving in 17 years, published 132 books for adults and children, many of which have won or been shortlisted for awards and some adapted into award-winning plays.
Writing
Presented to
John Dargavel
for his book, The Zealous Conservator: A Life of Charles Lane Poole, which takes a figure unknown to the general public, and with passion for one arcane field, successfully unfolds a story which illuminates much of the wider human condition.
Film
Presented to
Andrew Pike
for his film The Chifleys of Busby Street, a brilliant cinematic exercise in “People’s History” that portrays post-war Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley, often called Australia’s best-loved Prime Minister.
Dance
Presented to
Sandra Griffin
for over 25 years of dedicated commitment to dance education in Canberra, particularly through her work with the Canberra Youth Ballet School and the Canberra Dance Festival.
Dance
Presented to
Michelle Heine
for her choreography for The Canberra Philharmonic Society production of West Side Story, which allowed her dancers to successfully interpret the mood and spirit of the original concept.
Theatre
Presented to
Kate Shearer
for her educationally sophisticated conception of Jigsaw Theatre Company's collaborative production of Walk the Fence with Buzz Dance Company from Western Australia, and for her adaptation of the Peter Pan story, Wendy.
Theatre
Presented to
Playwright David Finnigan and designer Gillian Schwab
for their adventurous work on Oceans All Boiled Into Sky, a sci-fi black radio comedy transformed into stage theatre, staged at the Street Theatre.
Theatre
Presented to
the Papermoon ensemble
for The History Boys. To the boys, their Masters (and Mistress).
Theatre
Presented to
Graham Robertson
for a minimalist interpretation of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, directed by Geoffrey Borny.
Theatre
Presented to
Geoffrey Borny
for his sophisticated, elegant verse production of Moliere’s The Learned Ladies at Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
Theatre
Presented to
Cathie Clelland and her three-faced Medea: Jordan Best, Helen Brajkovic and Lexi Sekuless.
for a fresh but faithful approach to Euripides’ original Medea staged by Papermoon.
Musicals
Presented to
Tim Sekuless
for his incandescent performance in the lead role of Robbie Hart in Supa Productions’ The Wedding Singer.
Musicals
Presented to
Lexi Sekuless
for her exceptional performance in the role of Florence in the Queanbeyan City Council production of Chess.
Music
Presented to
Moya Simpson
for her autobiographical cabaret Big Voice, in which she utilised an extraordinary array of musical and performance skills to create a genuinely moving and entertaining performance work.
Music
Presented to
Karen Fitzgibbon
for a body of work that included solo roles in The Voss Journey and The Oriana Chorale’s Dido and Aeneas, but especially for her ravishing performance in The Best Choral Music Ever Written of Hayden’s With Verdure Clad, demonstrating brilliant articulation, relaxed phrasing and purity of tone.
Music
Presented to
Tobias Cole
for the concert The Best Choral Music Ever Written; for inspirational conducting that united the musical forces of disparate groups of musicians of varying standards to create a performance lifting all participants to memorable heights.
Music
Presented to
Tim Hansen
for composing, including a new work for the Griffyn Ensemble and especially for music composed and arranged for the Opening Ceremony of the Pacific School Games in the Bruce Stadium, which was performed by hundreds of school children from almost every school in Canberra.
Music
Presented to
Robyn Holmes and Vincent Plush
for conceiving and directing The Voss Journey, held during the Canberra International Music Festival in homage to Richard Meale's operatic interpretation of Patrick White’s Voss. It attracted contemporary opera composers, directors and singers to Canberra for a musical summit at the National Library of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive.