When the 2024 Meroogal Women’s Art Prize Exhibition opens on Saturday 09 November you’ll see 39 of the 298 artworks entered. Here you can see 5 of the 259 rejects, made by Jervis Bay artists, and find out what they think about art prizes.
Every two years Meroogal House Museum hosts an art prize for women living and working in NSW. Congratulations to the artists whose work was selected from the record number of entries this year.
I was one of the local artists who entered, as were Samantha Tannous, founder and editor of Jervis Bay Weekend, Barbara Dawson, Judy Panucci and Christine Wiltshier. This year, none of us were successful in getting selected. Judy Panucci was successful in the 2022 prize with her clever, captivating piece, Making Do – Moth and Panel for Elgin. It won the Highly Commended Award which included a modest cash component.
Judy Panucci, 2022. Making Do – Moth and Panel for Elgin. Plaster, paint, putty, sawdust, ink, feather. Photo © Joshua Morris for Sydney Living Museums.
Judy has been entering the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize for years. She says:
“I’m always shocked if I actually get picked. It’s always tough. Working out how they pick a winner is also entertaining, given how disparate the works are. It’s enjoyable just to do it; lovely to get selected and totally shocking to win a prize.”
Five of the 259 Rejects
The Meroogal Women’s Art Prize invites artists to enter artworks that, ‘respond to the historic house of Meroogal, its former occupants, and its meaning within broader historical and contemporary contexts. … The works will provide new perspectives on the personal stories of the people who once lived there, and the rich collection of objects that are still contained within the house.’
The selectors make their choices based on three photos of the artwork and a statement. If selected, the artwork is then physically delivered for exhibition and displayed within the house, among the museum’s contents.
For a brief overview of Meroogal and its occupants, to help you better understand the references in the artists’ statements, see my previous post.
Barbara Dawson A New Collar for Totti
Tot Thorburn was an accomplished needle woman, handy at repurposing household items and garments. Collars were important accessories, and, like many women of her time, she may have refashioned a doily or handkerchief to create a fancy collar that was worn over a modest blouse. My contemporary, imaginary collar for Totti is constructed from preloved doilies, decorated by extensive simple running stitch and embroidery and hand dyed in a colour reminiscent of the Jacaranda tree in the front garden.
Natalie McDonagh Living in each other’s pockets
Befitting a woman of her time, Kate Thorburn carefully crafts a set of tie-on pockets; worn under her skirts, close to her body. More than the typical private space to keep prized possessions, Kate’s pockets contain a world of secret spiritual knowledge and divination, giving her the means to experience a way of seeing, thinking and being beyond family norms. In a quirk of fate, June Wallace passes the pockets to me, making me the keeper of Kate’s knowledge.
Judy Panucci Hand Made
Hand Made arose from 3 inspirations: an entry in Tottie’s 1889 diary, “I … got some peaches. I found Kate & went … to eat them on the sly great fun” combined with my Aunty Gesualda’s (1928 – 2013) washboard, used for over 70 years to “rub my delicates” and a 2016 article on 3D printed clitorises used on French schools for sex education. These 3 ideas mashed cunningly in my head and grew from my hands. Generations of women; varieties of handwork. Hidden pleasures!
Samantha Tannous Buttoned up
These giant buttons are a playful tribute to the indispensable role buttons played in the lives of generations of Meroogal needlewomen. Before dressmakers’ zips came into use in women’s clothing from the 1930s, buttons were a mainstay for fastening garments, accessories and shoes, and as clothing decoration. In particular, my giant buttons look to three elaborate, beautiful buttons in the collection donated by June Wallace that probably belonged to her McGregor aunts: Mary Helen Grace and Elgin Thorburn.
Christine Wiltshier Knitting is… playful (k2 p1 yfwd p2tog k1 k3tog)
I do wonder what Belle Thorburn and her sisters would make of my improvisational toothpick knitting. As accomplished needlewomen they knitted and stitched with such careful purpose, creating; woollen socks for soldiers, garments for friends and family, exquisite lace for adornment. The toothpick knitting however, is a homage to creative play. Referencing the word play the family developed as entertainment, this form of knit play involves divining for knitting instructions, I wonder what the Meroogal women would create using this form of instruction?
Art Prizes : Friend or Foe?
Jervis Bay artist, Peter Wale, pithily summarises his objection to art prizes and reason for never entering them as, “Art is not a competitive sport”.
I heartily agree. As do the other artists in this article and in my wider networks … but/and still we enter. Why?
A prime motivator – albeit a negative one – is the limited opportunities we have as artists to exhibit work. Being selected for an art prize exhibition is an opportunity for work to be seen publicly.
Friend
Reasons for considering art prizes a friend are few:
- Choosing to enter can provide a helpful focus and a deadline to develop a concept and make a work whether or not it is actually submitted in the end.
- Barbara, Christine and I are all using the 2025 Halloran Contemporary Art Prize (entries open until 29 November), as a vehicle to develop techniques and ideas in our practices. I have decided not to enter but planning for it has usefully advanced my thinking about work I am making anyway.
- We all also enter prizes purely to support particular organisations or galleries, seeing the entry fee as a donation. Christine, for example, regularly enters the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Prize for this reason.
Foe
Among the reasons for art prizes being a foe are the imposts that come with them:
- Meroogal is highly unusual in that it is free to enter. Artists typically have to pay to enter art prizes. If an entry is accepted there then follows the costs of delivery and collection which obviously vary according to distance; insurance.
- On the off-chance an artist’s work sells, that can offset some costs, bearing in mind the sales commission reduces the amount coming to the artist by 30-50%
- Entering a prize can consume much time and effort in conceptualising, creating, writing entries, doing photography, and so on for a slim chance of being selected.
- On occasion, the requirements of the prize might align with works we are currently developing in our ongoing practice, in which case, creating an entry may not be too much of a distraction. More typically, new work responding to a specific brief has to be made, diverting precious time, energy, personal resources away from artwork in progress.
Rejection / Recognition
Art prizes are a peculiar feature in the world of practising artists and certainly deliver up a mixed bag.
Almost in the same week, Barbara Dawson’s Meroogal entry was rejected and she won a prize in the Shoalhaven Art Society (SAS) 57th Annual Exhibition which is currently on show at Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Nowra until Saturday 16 November.
Rejection is not a novel experience for any of the artists mentioned in this article nor artists in my wider networks. Our works have all been rejected more times than they’ve been accepted. Samantha’s view is that:
“Artists have to develop a very thick skin because rejection is the most common theme we all have to deal with – it’s actually very surprising that we pick ourselves up and put ourselves back out there again.”
Judy says, “Strangely, I don’t take it personally”, which is commendable but/and this can be a challenge. We understand, of course, it is the work being rejected not the artist but artworks are an extension of an artist’s being, expressing something personal. There is a certain vulnerability inherent in this.
Two works I have made in recent years – with deep, personal significance for me – were rejected as prize entries but both were bought by private collectors.
Another kind of arts lottery
For all of us, our strong preference is to be able to exhibit a body of work that shows our art in the context of a practice, rather than a single piece in an art prize. A solo or shared exhibition also enables us to engage with an audience through hosting talks and workshops and other events.
Opportunities to exhibit, however, are also something of an arts lottery – another one funded at our own cost. Typically, galleries issue an annual call out to artists to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to exhibit. This, too, can be a time consuming enterprise – conceptualising, writing, meeting the criteria for the submission – only to be rejected.
Earlier this year, Barbara, Christine and I collaborated on formulating a detailed EOI for the 3 of us to exhibit together and present an extensive program of community engagement. The pro-forma rejection notice we received did offer to provide feedback, should we wish. We did. I requested it, several times, but received no response from the arts centre in question.
Lack of feedback on rejected submissions is par for the course and definitely falls into the foe category with art prizes, and unsuccessful EOIs. We all recognise the workload this would involve for under resourced, stretched arts workers so have become resigned to the feedback vacuum. Feedback tends to be available on winning submissions, in the form of comments by selectors or judges.
Barbara goes to great effort to regularly exhibit her work, reflecting on her good fortune to have been able to have nine exhibitions in the past ten years, either solo shows or with another artist. She is well aware that the costs involved put this out of reach for many.
On occasion, financial support comes from other arts sources. Samantha’s current solo exhibition, Self covered Buttons, is on show at Gallery76 at the NSW Embroiderers’ Guild in Sydney until 18 November. She was fortunate to receive a 2023 Joyce Spencer Highly Commended Award which aided in the cost of hiring the gallery.
If we had more opportunities to exhibit our work in solo or shared exhibitions, the consensus is we would not enter art prizes.
To this end we continue trying to generate opportunities through available means. We have all recently completed, or are developing, EOIs to submit to galleries to hold our own solo or duo exhibitions and present work to a public audience.
Whether or not we get to exhibit we continue to make. A bit like sharks have to keep moving to survive, we have to make to thrive.
