Lesley Coulthard Wins Our Mob 2023 Emerging Artist Prize

Lesley Coulthard was announced as the winner of the $5,000 Don Dunstan Foundation OUR MOB Emerging Artist Prize during the 2023 OUR MOB awards ceremony at Adelaide Festival Centre last night.

Based in Copley, Lesley is from the Adyamathanhna language group. Her winning artworks, Ranges Jug and Akurru (Serpent) Track Bowl are made from midfire clay with foraged oxides.

The Trevor Nickolls Art Prize for OUR MOB winner is Samantha Gollan, and two OUR YOUNG MOB winners are Isaac Gowan-Reynolds and Mariah Lawrie. The Trevor Nickolls Art Prizes returned after being established in 2021 through the Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation, honouring the generosity of artist Trevor Nickolls.

Other prizes awarded include: the Country Arts SA Professional Development Initiative Award, won by Cedric Varcoe; and the new Ku Arts Award in honour of founding Chair, Inawinjti Williamson, won by Kunyi June-Anne McInerney.

The 2023 OUR MOB and OUR YOUNG MOB exhibitions are on display to the public at Adelaide Festival Centre's Festival Theatre Galleries until October 7. Pieces that are available to purchase can be viewed and purchased at Adelaide Festival Centre's online shop from Monday August 21. All artworks can be viewed in person at the exhibition at Festival Theatre foyer galleries.

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM: “We congratulate this year's winners and look forward to celebrating their success for years to come. I encourage people to visit the exhibition and enjoy these stunning artworks by South Australian First Nations artists.”

OUR MOB 2023 features four main components:

• OUR MOB: Art by South Australian Aboriginal Artists,
• OUR YOUNG MOB: Art by Aboriginal Artists 18 years and under,
• Trevor Nickolls OUR MOB Award supported by Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation solo exhibition by 2022 award recipient, Gudjula and Girramay artist Kat Bell
• Don Dunstan Foundation Prize solo exhibition, created by 2022's Emerging Artist Award recipient, Adnyamathanha, Narungga and Yarluyandi artist Temaana Sanderson-Bromley.

Since its inception in 2006, Adelaide Festival Centre's OUR MOB has showcased the quality and diversity of art by South Australian First Nations artists, boosting the careers of many artists, and generating direct-to-artist sales to support their art practices.

The festivities continue with Adelaide Festival Centre's Celebrating First Nations program which includes storytelling and literary events OUR STORIES and OUR WORDS, illustration workshop OUR YOUNG WORDS, Sonya Rankine's Thukeri Weaving Workshop and poetry exhibition defi-Nations [first languages in verse].

In a one-night only event, music icons No Fixed Address will perform at Her Majesty's Theatre next week, joined by the award winning First Nations Voices with Glenn Skuthorpe, Jungaji and Adelaide's own Nancy Bates. The performance is accompanied by a dedicated exhibition at the Ian and Pamela Wall Gallery on Her Majesty's Theatre rooftop showcasing archival behind the scenes images from the band's life, including never before seen images from their world tours in the 1980s. More information on our Celebrating First Nations program can be found here: https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/celebrating-first-nations

Adelaide Festival Centre gratefully acknowledges ongoing partnerships with Ku Arts; SICAD; Country Arts SA; The Don Dunstan Foundation; TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art; and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait.

Photo Credit: Mel Henderson

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