The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Winners

The Freedman Foundation and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) are pleased to announce this year’s recipients of The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists.

Four artists have received $8,000 scholarships to assist with overseas travel to develop and expand their research and practice.

Video, sound and installation artist, Tiyan Baker (NSW) will undertake a self-directed research trip to her mother’s birthplace in Sarawak, Borneo. Baker’s work draws on field research and documentary techniques to explore the emotional experience of the self as embedded in greater socio-political contexts.

“I feel honoured and grateful to receive this generous scholarship from The Freedman Foundation. This scholarship will give me the opportunity to travel to Sarawak, Borneo, where I will explore the unique role Indigenous Bidayuh women play in mitigating complex transformations in Bidayuh culture, as well as reflect on my own responsibilities as an Australian-Bidayuh woman and artist. This is a trip I have been wanting to undertake for a very long time and I am truly overjoyed to see it come to fruition.”

Performance, video and installation artist, Kieran Bryant (NSW) will travel to England and Wales on a research-led project examining water as a queer embodied resistive force within the UK canal network. He will undertake a mentorship with dance artist Leah Marojević, work with gallery Auto Italia, visit a canal restoration camp and a range of British queer archives.

“I am so very excited and grateful to be a recipient of The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of The Freedman Foundation and NAVA I can move forward with a project that will allow for significant growth and expanded possibilities in my practice and career, providing opportunities for creative and professional development with artists, institutions, and watery sites in an international context.”

Video and installation artist, Callum McGrath (Qld) will travel to Germany on a self-directed research trip visiting the archives of Magnus Hirschfeld and historical sites/memorials significant to the persecution of LGBTQIA+ people in WWII. McGrath is an artist whose research-led practice examines the historical, personal, and political resonance of inherited queer trauma.

“I am both thrilled and deeply honoured to be one of the artists awarded The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship this year. The scholarship will provide me with the significant assistance necessary to broaden the scope and depth of my research-based practice, including the opportunity to travel to the library and archive of Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin. I am very grateful to NAVA, The Freedman Foundation, and UNSW Galleries for their support of my practice.”

Sculptor, Laetitia Olivier-Gargano (Vic) will undertake a self-directed research trip to Japan to explore how its iconic ‘fake-food’ displays are made. She will visit the factories that produce these objects to learn from the artisans and spend time researching ‘showa-era’ food and culture throughout Japan.

“I am incredibly grateful to have received The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship! It's wonderful to be supported and encouraged to further my artistic career. I'm excited to conduct my research in Japan and learn new skills in fake-food making.”

The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship is one of the most prestigious grants offered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and supports talented young artists to develop their careers internationally through study, residency or mentorship. Since its inception in 2000, the scholarship has enabled 90 emerging artists to expand and enrich their studio practice abroad.

An exhibition featuring works by this year’s recipients is being curated by Isabella Cornell, who has received a Curatorial Scholarship from The Freedman Foundation through NAVA and UNSW Art & Design. The exhibition opens at UNSW Galleries on 9 August 2019 and will also showcase works by the returning scholars from 2017: Alexandra Spence (NSW), Roberta Rich (Vic), Sara Retallick (Vic), Spence Messih (NSW).

The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship is administered by the National Association of the Visual Arts (NAVA) on behalf of The Freedman Foundation and assessed by Jacqueline Millner and Nick Vickers.

The Freedman Foundation and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) are pleased to announce this year’s recipients of The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists. 

Five artists have received $5,000 scholarships to assist with overseas travel to develop and expand their research and practice.

Interdisciplinary artist, Caroline Garcia (NSW) will travel to New York to undertake a two-year Masters of Fine Arts program at The New School / Parsons School of Design. Garcia’s practice is shaped by alterity, she works across live performance and video through a hybridised aesthetic of cross-cultural dance, ritual practice, new media, and the sampling of popular culture and colonial imagery.

“I’m so grateful to be a recipient of The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship! The generosity that this award provides is a huge help in supporting and advancing my art practice and career both academically and internationally,” she said.

Lu Forsberg (Qld) will travel to Garpenberg, Kiruna and Aitik on a self-directed research project examining contemporary Swedish mining methods and mine rehabilitation. Forsberg is an experimental artist working primarily with video, assemblage and Geo browsers to examine the nexus between environmental, social and economic systems. Their practice is currently focused on the complexities of the mining industry, rehabilitation/ reclamation of mine sites, and accessibility.

Classically trained flautist turned sound artist, Mimi Kind (NSW) will travel to Bern, Switzerland for a nine-month internship with large-scale kinetic sound installation artist, Zimoun.

Kind said today, “I’m thrilled and honoured to have been awarded The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists. This is such a fantastic opportunity for me to further my own practice of kinetic sound sculpture and installation, through understanding Zimoun’s approaches to mass-scale installations and repeated mechanisms, as well as connecting with other artists in this specialised field.”

Jimmy Nuttall (Vic) will complete a research led film work and dissertation on the relationship between queer identities, ancestries and contemporary online screen cultures during a one-year Masters in Artists Film and Moving Image at Goldsmiths, University of London.

“I am thrilled to be supported by this scholarship. To be able to study in this specialised Masters in Artists’ Film at Goldsmiths, London is a huge step in my practice and career,” said Nuttall. “The support of The Freedman Foundation via NAVA will allow me to push further my interest in the complexities of queer representation and narratives into a new and exciting zone for me.” 

Shireen Taweel (NSW) will travel to Turkey to learn master copper artisan skills with the Copper Tinsmith and Narce Association of Gaziantep. Taweel’s practice is rooted in cross-cultural discourse, where local-global dialogues influence her work through the refined processes of metallurgy. 

“This scholarship will provide significant support for a period of creative development for me where I will learn traditional skills and gather an understanding of copper, while further pushing my practice within a contemporary context,” said Taweel.

The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship is one of the most prestigious grants offered by NAVA and supports talented young artists to develop their careers internationally through study, residency or mentorship. Since its inception in 2000, the scholarship has enabled over 85 emerging artists to expand and enrich their studio practice abroad.

An exhibition featuring works by this year’s recipients is being curated by Yarran Gatsby, who has received a Curatorial Scholarship from The Freedman Foundation through the Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership program at UNSW Art & Design. The exhibition opens at UNSW Galleries on 28 September 2018 and will also showcase works by the returning scholars from 2016: Alice Couttoupes, Brigitte Hart, Olivia Koh, Anna McMahon and Georgia Saxelby.

The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship and Curatorial Scholarship are administered by NAVA on behalf of The Freedman Foundation and assessed by Jacqueline Millner and Nick Vickers.

The Freedman Foundation and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) are pleased to announce this year’s recipients of The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists.

Alexandra Spence (NSW) will undertake a mentorship with seminal sound-artist David Toop and a workshop with sound-recordist Chris Watson, exploring how notions of place and identity are shaped and mediated through everyday sounds.

“I feel honoured, excited and grateful to have received The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists 2017. Receiving this Scholarship will allow me to fulfil a long-term goal, as well as the chance to focus on, challenge and develop my practice in new and exciting ways. It is also very inspiring to see sound-art represented by a major Australian visual arts award.” – Alexandra Spence (pictured: Every space is constantly trembling, 2016, audiovisual installation, custom-made contact microphone, transducer, bench, window, amplifier, headphones, dimensions variable.)

Roberta Rich (Vic) will undertake self-directed research exploring the history of the South African Race Relations Institute and tracing slave African ancestry in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

“Receiving this award is very exciting and has come at a time that will allow me to continue the great momentum of my research in South Africa and to shape my practice's future aesthetic developments” - Roberta Rich

Sara Retallick (Vic) will travel to Limpopo, South Africa to take part in ‘Sonic Mmabolela’, a two-week residency with sound artist Fransisco Lopez developing site responsive creative works using recordings gathered from the landscape.

“I am thrilled to be awarded this generous scholarship from NAVA and The Freedman Foundation which will enable me to take part in the Sonic Mmabolela artist residency. This unique experience will prove invaluable to my practice as I engage and learn with a dynamic group of artists from all over the world exploring new creative methods for developing sound works.” - Sara Retallick

Spence Messih will undertake a mentorship with New York based artist Gordon Hall, followed by self-directed research trips to The Chinati Foundation and various LGBTQIA archives throughout North America and Canada.

“I believe that this opportunity will greatly assist to locate my practice within an international context, expand my professional networks and strengthen my artistic process through an analysis of the intersections between transgender and gender variant histories and abstract and reductive art practices. This research trip will have a significant impact on the development of new work for my solo exhibition at Lismore Regional Gallery in mid-2018.” - Spence Messih

Now in its 17th year The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship is one of the most prestigious grants offered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), providing talented young artists with $5,000 to build their emerging careers internationally by undertaking formal study or participating in a residency or mentorship. Since the program’s inception in 2000, the scholarship has enabled over 80 emerging artists to expand and enrich their studio practice abroad.

An exhibition featuring works by this year’s recipients is being curated by Dara Wei, who has received a Curatorial Scholarship from The Freedman Foundation through the Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership program at UNSW Art & Design. The exhibition opens at UNSW Galleries on 11 August 2017 and will also showcase works by the returning scholars from 2015: Claudia Nicholson (NSW), George Egerton-Warburton (WA), Jason Phu (NSW) and Jorgen Doyle (Tas).

The Freedman Foundation UNSW Curatorial Scholarship recipient, and Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership candidate at UNSW Art & Design is Emily Sullivan.

The 2016 scholarship recipients are Alice Couttoupes who will undertake a two-month residency at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris and exhibit at the Bernardaud Foundation in Limoges; Brigitte Hart is travelling to Limpopo, South Africa for a workshop with pioneering sound artist Francisco Lopez drawing on acoustic ecology and socio-politics; Olivia Koh will travel to Manila in the Philippines, to undertake an artist residency at Green Papaya alongside a mentorship with founding artists Noberto Roldan and Merv Espina that reconsiders the use of social and retail space in Quezon City; Anna McMahon is also undertaking a residency at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris where she will research the idea of failure and paradoxical idea of ordering nature in the context of the Jardin à la Française, she will then go on to complete a mentorship with Agatha Gothe-Snape in Tokyo, followed by the first half of Documenta 14, to be held in Athens; and Georgia Saxelby will do a two-month mentorship in New York with landscape architect Julia Watson, considered an international expert in sacred space. To mark the presentation of their awards, the artists will show work relating to their primary ideas and travel destinations.

Podcast with Oliver Koh, 26 November 2016, SBS

Inaugural Freedman Foundation UNSW Curatorial Scholarship recipient, and Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership candidate at UNSW Art & Design was Luke Letourneau.

The 2015 Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship recipients were Jorgen Doyle (Tas) who travelled to Jogjakarta, Indonesia to work on a collaborative public art installation in the informal settlement of Kampung Ratmakan; George Egerton-Warburton (WA) currently working on his self-directed thesis as part of a research residency at the Center of Contemporary Art in Tbilisi, Georgia; Claudia Nicholson (NSW) who will embark on four months of research into pre-Columbian ceramics across South and Central America (Paraguay, Bolivia and Guatemala) in early 2016; and Jason Phu (NSW) who recently arrived in China to participate in a residency at Organhaus Chongqing, followed by mentorships with Yang Shu of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and Li Jin of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. Phu will then travel to Chongqing where he intends to establish a collaborative residency program for Australian and international artists.

The Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship exhibition showcased the talents of nine emerging Australian artists, presenting the work of the 2013 and 2015 scholarship recipients from 17- 31 October at UNSW Galleries, corner Oxford St and Greens Rd Paddington.

The 2014 winners were Ella Condon, Michelle Day, Brenton Smith, Kelley Stapleton and Katie Turnbull. Ella will use her scholarship to support her emerging visiting artist residency at Parsons, The New School of Design, New York. Michelle will pursue a Masters of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University Thailand. Brenton has been awarded the Skammdagi artist in residency in north Iceland. Kelley will travel to the United States to pursue a personal study program at Marfa, new York and Chicago. Katie will undertake a residency in the Arctic Circle researching data tracking technology. Congratulations to the winners and to all the applicants who displayed a very high standard of work.

Cigdem Aydemir (NSW) who was selected for a two-month residency in Istanbul; Alice Lang (Qld) who undertook post-graduate study in Los Angeles; collaborators Catherine or Kate (Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft, Qld) who attended training at Second City Comedy School in Chicago; and Elizabeth Willing (Qld) who undertook work experience with Thomas Rentmeister in Berlin.