bentART 2010
Update on 2010 Exhibition
The bentART exhibition opening night is on Friday the 11th June, with the exhibition running until the following Monday, 14th June. This year we have a change of venue, with the exhibition being held at the Wentworth Falls School of Arts, which is an exciting venue with a number of spaces that will enable the curators to show the works off to their best. Grateful thanks go out to BMCC for their assistance in making available some of the hanging material from the Katoomba Civic Centre.
Due to the kind generosity of sponsors the prize money is more than doubled from 2009 – now being over $5,000 in total. In addition, we have several new categories to encourage wider participation amongst the GLBT community; a New Entrant Award for those who have not submitted art in previous exhibitions, a Youth Award for young GLBT artists under 25 and an Aboriginal Award for GLBT indigenous artists.
The judging of the bentART award and the four category prizes will be done by John Kirkman, who previously ran the Penrith Regional Gallery and prior to that he was Curator / Manager at the Australian Museum. John is currently CEO of Penrith Performing & Visual Arts Centre. Joining John in the judging will be Geoff White from Katoomba Fine Arts gallery on Lurline St. Geoff will be judge the New Entrant and the Youth award. We are currently organising for the Aboriginal Bent Artist Award to be judged by an Aboriginal artist.
Curation of the exhibition will be undertaken by Sophie Seeger and Jane Canfield. Sophie, an artist herself, has considerable experience in gallery management and curation , while Jane is an artist who works across a range of media and has strong exhibition experience. We are fortunate to have such a skilled combination in judging and curation . Sincere thanks for all for donating their time and expertise.
Finally, the opening night is set to be a very social affair again this year with wines once more being supplied by Rolling Wines of Orange and catering by Richard Moon and the Blue M café of Katoomba. With good wine, fine food, friends new and old and wonderful art all around, it’s bound to be a night to remember it – so don’t miss it!
