Attn: ,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Blake Prize Announces New Award Category

Monday May 18, 2009 -

This year’s Blake Prize is again set to provide artists with a challenge to explore the religious and spiritual in art!

The Blake Society has teamed up with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) to award a $5,000 Blake Prize for Human Justice. This new award category will acknowledge and promote the work of artists that have addressed issues of human justice.

The MUA’s Paddy Crumlin said, “The MUA has a long history of supporting social justice and human rights for communities both in Australia and internationally. As part of this tradition, the MUA has worked with artists and filmmakers since the 1950s to challenge the perceptions we have about the Society in which we live. Our partnership with the Blake Society, allows the MUA to continue this tradition and provide artists with an opportunity to contribute to ongoing social debate”.

Rev. Rod Pattenden, Chair, Blake Society, said, “We are excited about the expanding relevance of the Blake Prize in these troubled and changing times. Our culture needs people of imagination to redefine what it is to be human in the face of the these challenges and extend that into the territory of spirituality, justice and human hope. The Blake is proving to be a means of refreshing the social relevance of contemporary art..”

As well as the Human Justice Award, The John Coburn Emerging Artist Award of $5,000 will also be awarded this year. This now takes the prize pool to $30,000. Entries for the 58th Blake Prize close on Friday 26 June, 2009.

The Blake Poetry Prize, of $5,000, undertaken in partnership with the NSW Writers’ Centre and Leichhardt Council, will also be awarded in 2009. Entries for the Blake Poetry Prize close on Friday 12 June, 2009.

Further details and entry forms can be found at www.blakeprize.com.au

NOTE FOR EDITORS:-

KEY DATES FOR 58TH BLAKE PRIZE

Entries close: Friday 26 June
Exhibition opening: Thursday 3 September
Exhibition: Friday 4 September – Saturday 3 October

If you'd like more information about this topic, or would like to arrange an interview with a representative from the Blake Society, please call Rev. Rod Pattenden on 0418 861 267 or e-mail info@blakeprize.com.au

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