11 July 2005
Competition celebrates Year of the Built Environment
New Zealanders are invited to look at our cities and towns with fresh eyes in a special art competition celebrating the
Year of the Built Environment, the Urban Affairs and Environment Minister Marian Hobbs announced today.
A total of $7000 in prize money can be won in the competition, Urban Life - A Celebration in Art. Judges include All
Black and art collector Anton Oliver, celebrated architect Ian Athfield, senior architecture lecturer, art historian and
curator Dr Deidre Brown, and artist, filmmaker and designer Neil Pardington.
"The competition will encourage people to find new ways of representing the positives of the urban areas around us,"
Marian Hobbs says. "We are asking people to depict an urban place, structure or activity - past, present or future -
that captures their imagination in some way."
The competition is part of the Year of the Built Environment 2005, announced by the minister in January. The Year's
flagship events, including the recent Open House events in the four main centres, are designed to stimulate public
interest in the significance of the built environment in New Zealanders' daily lives.
Entries close on Friday 16 September. They can be any size or genre, including drawing, painting, photography, craft or
sculpture. They can also be new or existing works.
Shortlisted works will be displayed in a web exhibition from 31 October to 1 December, with the public able to vote for
the People's Choice award.
Winners of the first prize ($5000), three merit awards ($500 each) and the People's Choice award ($500) will be
announced at the opening of a second exhibition of the shortlisted entries. This exhibition will be held at Shed 11 on
the Wellington waterfront from 6 to 14 December.
Urban Life - A Celebration in Art is organised by the Ministry for the Environment, Wellington City Council, Creative
New Zealand and City Gallery Wellington on behalf of the steering group.
Click on the link below for entry forms and a competition brief.
Link: http://wellington.govt.nz/services/urban/urbanlife/urbanlife.html
ENDS