Lanyon Homestead is a jewel in the crown of the ACT’s heritage; its elegant Victorian interiors, its charming gardens, its humble stables and kitchens, and its picturesque vistas over the Brindabellas make it a favourite place for many Canberrans. Now, a major new arts prize will encourage the region’s artists to capture their visions of the idyllic 1850s estate and its complex history.
The inaugural ACT Historic Places Art Prize, launched today in Lanyon’s grounds, will award a prize pool of more than $20,000 to winning works by ACT and regional artists that respond to the homestead: its natural and cultural history, tangible and intangible heritage, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous occupants, workers, and families.
All mediums are welcome, from painting and sculpture to digital art and soundscapes.
“This is about new ways of interpreting and engaging with an incredible homestead, but also providing new opportunities for new creations, new artistic works, as well as bringing new people here, and bringing historic places and what they present to us in the community to a much broader audience,” arts minister Tara Cheyne said.
“Artists can use any lens and any framework as they consider Lanyon Homestead and what it means for Canberra past, Canberra of the future, and to tell new stories or indeed reflect on that past…”
Artists have six months to visit Lanyon and create their works. That, Ms Cheyne said, “gives people time not only to come here and think about what they’d like to create, but then actually to create and to muse and to be inspired”.
Site briefings will be held on 29 November, 3, 8, and 10 December, and 14 January.
Artworks chosen as finalists will be exhibited at Lanyon from Saturday 1 July to Sunday 15 October next year, from winter to the end of Floriade.
While the magnificent gardens make the homestead a popular place to visit in spring, visitor numbers are often quiet in winter; Ms Cheyne hopes the exhibition will draw more people to the homestead during the off-peak season.
The prize winners will be announced at the exhibition launch on 30 June 2023.
First prize is $7,000; second prize is $3,000; and third prize is a solo exhibition at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, with $500 cash to support the exhibition (value approximately $5,500). Craft ACT will award a craft and design prize: a solo exhibition at their gallery (value approximately $7,000). A people’s choice award of $500 will be awarded at the close of the exhibition.
For more information, visit http://www.historicplaces.com.au/events/act-historic-places-art-prize.
Lanyon’s untold and settlement histories
Lanyon is a well-known site, representing many forms of history for the Canberra region, said Dr Anna Wong, director of ACT Historic Places.
While it is presented primarily as part of the settlement history of Canberra, the site was occupied by Ngunnawal people for tens of thousands of years. The site contains scarred trees and artefact scatters, while Thunderstone Aboriginal Cultural Services‘ tours show the site’s shield and canoe trees.
“It is a place of unspoken history, contested history, untold history,” Dr Wong said. She hopes artists will explore these themes.
Lanyon’s colonial history begins in the mid-19th century. James Wright built a home farm in the 1830s, using convict labour. When he went bankrupt in 1848, he sold the estate to Andrew and Jane Cunningham, a Scottish family. The Cunninghams built the current homestead in 1859, and their descendants lived there until the 1920s. Briefly owned by Harry Osborne, Lanyon was bought by the Field family, major pastoralists, as one of their many land holdings, until the Commonwealth Government compulsorily acquired it in 1971.
Lanyon’s history is “a rich and storied canvas”, Ms Cheyne said. She believes the art prize is an opportunity to revisit and re-examine that history.
The building, she says, is “an incredible form and an example of what has traditionally been termed ‘settlement history’; it has been immaculately preserved and cared for by our Historic Places team”.
But what, she asks, do ‘settlement’ and ‘settlement history’ mean in the context of Indigenous land that was never ceded? Lanyon, she remarks, was established when land was stolen from Aboriginal people, “a time of enormous pain for our First Nations communities”.
“While we’re very proud of Lanyon Homestead, and it’s very important to maintain its preservation and to promote it, I really encourage these conversations and to reflect on the history that it has, and perhaps these untold stories.”
Arts prize supports artists
The ACT Government’s Cultural Facilities Corporation identified the prize and exhibition as a key action in the Arts, Culture and Creative Policy 2022–2026 Action Plan to support new art works and to encourage community engagement with local arts practices at Lanyon, Mugga Mugga Cottage, and Calthorpes’ House. (The last two historic places will be featured in the prize in years to come, Ms Cheyne said.)
For Ms Cheyne, the new prize is an example of collaboration between the ACT Government, the city’s arts organisations, and creatives – a major part of the government’s Statement of Ambition 2021–2026 to have Canberra recognised as the arts capital of Australia.
Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Crafts ACT, and the Cultural Facilities Corporation are all working together, she remarks; the exhibitions will help bring audiences to those organisations. The prize, she said, will “amplify impact and amplify visitorship for everyone”.
It will certainly be a boon for Lanyon; staff are disappointed that Lanyon’s planned Harvest Days, part of the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival, were cancelled because of heavy rain this year and COVID restrictions last year.
“Having something for everyone to focus their energies on, and something that’s new, while also drawing on the strengths of a place like Lanyon, is really invigorating for everyone involved with historic places,” Ms Cheyne said.
Artists, the minister said, are among those hardest hit by the pandemic. She is determined to find ways both the government and organisations can promote art and artists, and ensure they have appropriate prize money and further opportunities.
The ACT Government holds two rounds of Arts Activities funding every year, with grants for $5,000 to $50,000 available. Artists can also apply all year round to ArtsACT for up to $5,000 of grant money.
Some extraordinary things have come out of them, and they have had ripple effect on artists’ careers, Ms Cheyne said. For instance, Clare Young’s Love Forever, a Canberra-produced movie, was the only Australian film to premiere at the Venice International Film Festival this year. Young received a grant from ArtsACT in 2012 to intern with director Jane Campion.
- To Venice, Love Forever, from Canberra (28 August)
“That shows what funding and support can do for artists’ careers,” Ms Cheyne said. “We’re very proud of that relationship.”
Just last week, for instance, Grease Monkey held its GreasyBalds Art Prize, described as Australia’s only arts competition inspired by a burger joint. There were 124 entries in a range of mediums; the winner was a video.
“Artists are hungry for these opportunities, and will take them up,” Ms Cheyne said.
Similarly, the Amp It Up! gig fund is helping small live music venues – such as Smith’s Alternative or P. J. O’Reilly’s – to recover from COVID.
“We’re doing what we can to support the live music scene,” Ms Cheyne said.
