Craigs Aspiring Art Prize returns in 2023
Over the hill in Wanaka the annual Craigs Aspiring Art Prize will take place this weekend. The annual event attracts artists from throughout New Zealand and offers a top prize of $20,000. It’s the main fundraiser for Holy Family Catholic School.
This year the top prize has jumped from $10,000 in previous years to $20,000, with main sponsor Craigs Investment Partners taking ownership of the winning piece.
“It’s been going for about 16 years and it started off as a really small competition for South Island-based artists. Now it’s grown to a nationwide competition. Craigs Investment Partners has always been part of it — they’re the main sponsor and they sponsor the supreme prize, which this year is a $20,000 acquisition prize,” says one of the event organisers Leigh Cooper.
There’s been a record number of entries and approximately 240 pieces have been selected for exhibition. There’s usually around 100 pieces on display.
“Last year was our largest with 140 pieces. We’re kind of limited on space because it’s in school classrooms and Holy Family is quite small. So we put our thinking caps on and managed to work out how we can display another 100 pieces.
“We‘ve got more artists from all around New Zealand, so it’s pretty exciting. All the artworks are new, so they’ve never been seen before. That’s one of the criteria of this event; fresh piece of artwork to be entered and displayed.”
Opening night will be on the 13th of January and will include canapés and a live band. Following that there will be a three-day exhibition at the school which is open to the public for $5 with all artwork for sale. All funds raised go back into the school for resources such as funding additional teachers, books, playground equipment, and more.
“This fundraiser is really important. I had set up an Aspiring Art Foundation a couple of years ago. We’re putting a bit of money aside, and hopefully this year we’ve got enough money to get an artist into the school to teach some of the kids a new art skill. Just so that there’s somebody new coming in with fresh ideas. It’s nice that we can give kids the opportunity to experience visual arts within the small school,” says Leigh.
The event is the biggest one on the calendar for the school and a lot of effort is put into it. Overall there’s $30,000 worth of prizes and the exhibition attracts an array of artists locally and from throughout Aotearoa.
The exhibition will take place at Holy Family Catholic School in Wanaka from 13 — 16 January. Winners will be announced on opening night, and the exhibition is open to the public from the 14th. You can find out more info on the event as well as the artists and artworks displayed at aspiringartprize.co.nz
