One would possibly contemplate it future for Don Clark to have moved to Collie — simply two weeks after Collie Artwork Gallery opened in 2015 — the place he has been instrumental in placing the gallery on the map with the success of the Collie Artwork Prize.
The group milestone had been 40 years within the making, culminating within the first purpose-built A-class artwork gallery within the State for the reason that Artwork Gallery of WA was constructed within the 1970s.
Unaware of the city’s new addition when shifting there from Tasmania, it did not take lengthy for Clark and his artist spouse to seek out out, when a member of the native artwork group quickly recommended retired Clark ought to be part of the Collie Artwork Gallery board.
It was there that the deputy chairperson developed the thought for the Collie Artwork Prize.
“I got here on board right here, noticed this gallery and thought ‘wow, how good would this be if we might have an exhibition right here that attracted top-quality artists?” Clark recounts.
“I believed Collie deserved to have an occasion that was notable and will make a little bit of a splash within the arts scene.
“So I ran it by the opposite board members, who thought it was a good suggestion and instructed me to go and arrange it. So I did.”
With assist from the local people, they managed to lift funds for a $50,000 prize for the inaugural Collie Artwork Prize 2018, attracting greater than 500 entries from throughout Australia.
The second Collie Artwork Prize ran in 2020, with the third COVID-19 delayed installment, Collie Artwork Prize 2023, opening with a gala occasion on March 4, when the winner from 368 entries and 47 finalists might be introduced.
The principle prize stays at $50,000, with extra sponsored money prizes and future exhibition help.
“For all three occasions, the cut up of the entries has been two thirds WA, one third Japanese States, give or take a couple of proportion factors,” Clark shares.
“That is comprehensible as a result of the price of getting paintings over from the east just isn’t low cost. Curiously sufficient, while you take a look at the finalists for every of the three occasions, the cut up is about the identical, two thirds from WA and one third from over east.
“The judging has been finished blind. In different phrases, there’s been no artist’s title related to any of the photographs that the judges noticed.”
The prize kinds a part of Collie’s transition into diversifying the financial system away from its conventional coalmining and energy industries into the tourism and cultural sectors, and has held the continuing theme of “Id” from the start.
“It is good for Collie as a result of it attracts individuals into city and we predict it is the creative hub of the South West,” Clark says.
“One would assume, and I believed, that the theme ‘Id’ would possibly simply entice loads of portraits, however it’s fairly unimaginable the vary and variety of the interpretation of that theme by the artists.”
As soon as the judges choose their finalists, Clark individually telephones every profitable artist to share the excellent news.
“That is private for each artist the place they’re baring their soul once they put their work on show and I feel that is value phoning as much as say ‘hey, that is Don from Collie Artwork Gallery, congratulations, you have been chosen as a finalist’,” he says.
“There’s loads of laborious work however there’s loads of pleasure in it as effectively.”
With a background in engineering, enterprise possession and a penchant for touring the world, Clark says every thing he has finished in life has instantly or not directly helped him get the Collie Artwork Prize off the bottom and make it the success that it’s.
“It is definitely not an ego factor,” he says humbly.
“I get pleasure from doing issues in the neighborhood and for the group. I have been concerned in a few different organizations on this group, just like the Males’s Shed and so forth, however Collie Artwork Gallery has a particular place in my coronary heart.”
