Strong Voices

As entries close for the 2023 IHC Art Awards – the 20th year of the national competition – the attention shifts to this year’s judges who will make their call on the winners.

Our judges for 2023 are Tim Walker, Mark Hutchins-Pond and Elizabeth Caldwell. Each brings enormous experience and understanding of art in Aotearoa New Zealand to this year’s awards.

For 20 years, the artists have been wowing audiences with the beauty and diversity and power of their work.

“It’s the fresh and often totally unexpected work the artists create. And the beautiful energy the process always brings in buckets,” Tim Walker says. Tim is an Auckland-based arts and culture consultant with more than three decades’ experience in the art gallery sector. This will be Tim’s fourth time judging and he says the IHC Art Awards are a highlight for him.

Mark Hutchins-Pond has extensive art sector expertise acquired over three decades of studying, writing, presenting, critiquing and championing the best contemporary fine art in the country. He is now an art specialist at Webbs after a decade as the contemporary art lead curator at the Pātaka Art+Museum in Porirua.

Elizabeth Caldwell is Te Ringa Auaha, Director Art and Heritage at Experience Wellington, and she is responsible for the oversight of the conceptual content of the exhibitions at all its sites, including City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi and Wellington Museum. Elizabeth received an ONZM for her services to the arts in the 2023 New Year’s Honours.

An exciting trend is the number of younger artists entering the competition since the Youth Award was introduced in 2021. Last year Kāpiti student Helena Brocklebank won both the Youth Award and the L’affare People’s Choice Award for her comic drawing Angry. More than 400 people entered the awards in 2022.

In another development this year, we will be exhibiting all the entries from artists in our pop-up gallery at 69 Willis Street,Wellington. This means everybody has the chance to sell their artwork in the gallery. Any artwork that does not sell in the gallery will be listed for sale on Trade Me. Artists will receive 100 percent of the sale proceeds.

The judges will not be selecting a Top 100 this year. Instead, they will select the 30 finalists, including the first, second, third and Youth Award winners from all the entries received. Members of the public can vote for their favourite artworks in the L’affare People’s Choice Award.

The IHC Art Awards are open to people aged 13 and over with an intellectual disability or an intellectual disability and autism.The prizes are $5000 for the winner, $3000 for second place, $2000 for third place, $1500 to the Youth Award winner and $2000 for the L’affare People’s Choice Award winner.

‍

Caption: Helena Brocklebank’s drawing Angry (extract) was a concept drawing for a comic series she was working on.