New Female Canterbury Art Award Launched

NEW FEMALE CANTERBURY ART AWARD LAUNCHED

The Ashburton Art Gallery in partnership with the Zonta Club of Ashburton have announced a new Canterbury wide female only art award for emerging and mid-career artists. The Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award (ZAFAA) will be an annual awards exhibition that seeks to advance the career of female artists contributing to the wider art discourse.

Although 2017 will mark the inaugural year for ZAFAA, Zonta Club of Ashburton have been involved in supporting the arts in Mid-Canterbury for close to 20 years through their annual Youth Art Awards. The newly shaped awards will have a focused intention more aligned to the work of Zonta International which exists to advance the status of woman worldwide. Linda Petrie, spokeswoman for the Status of Women, ZAFAA committee says the awards “are an exciting opportunity for Zonta to empower women through art and to raise the public profile of women artists.”

The premier award recipient will win a cash prize along with a special opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at the Gallery in the following year. This chance for a fully curated and professionally installed exhibition will add greatly to the value of ZAFAA and one that Gallery Manager/Curator Shirin Khosraviani is sure will contribute to the growth of artistic careers. “This prize will appeal greatly to artists hoping to propel their practice to the next level” said Khosraviani, “it will be a fantastic chance to develop a new body of work for public exhibition and have the support of a passionate institution at your side.”

The awards will also pay tribute to the original youth awards with the creation of a separate category for young females between the ages of 16 and 20. “We are delighted that the creative youth in Canterbury will still be acknowledged as part of these new awards, and it is our hope that it will inspire them to study and further themselves in the arts” said Petrie.

ZAFAA entry forms are now available through the Gallery website www.ashburtonartgallery.org.nz

ENDS

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