Curatorial theme
The North Sydney Art Prize will be held at the iconic The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability in Waverton. This unique site enables broad participation and accommodates the inclusion of suitable work in any medium, sculpture, installation and new media works. Works will be selected for exhibition in restored sandstone tunnels and chambers and other locations at the site.
The curatorial theme encourages artists to consider the overarching principles of the exhibition site at The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability. The Coal Loader Centre opened in 2011 as a major regional community resource and was transformed from an old industrial site to a place where you can be inspired by best-practice sustainable technology, community gardens, native bush nursery and regenerated parklands. The Coal Loader showcases innovation and serves as a community hub for Council’s extensive range of environmental and sustainability programs. Located within the bushland of Balls Head Reserve and adjacent to historic Berrys Bay, The Coal Loader is a site of both remarkable industrial heritage and environmental sustainability.
Artists can address the theme through a conceptual OR material approach to their practice and are required to respond to one of the following:
- a cultural, historical, social, or metaphorical aspect of The Coal Loader site
- a physical feature of The Coal Loader site, for example the architecture, harbour foreshore, parklands, bushland reserve, tunnels and chambers
- address a local or global issue broadly related to the curatorial rationale, for example: sustainability (environmental, ecological, cultural, social, political, economic, technological), climate action, renewal, remediation and regeneration, climate change, mass production or consumer culture
The curatorial theme embraces diversity in contemporary art providing an entry point into conversations about our complex relationship with the world around us, in a rapidly changing global landscape.