JADA entries open for 2024

evolved,” she said.

Ms Gurich said at the offcial opening of the exhibition on September 27, two prizes would be awarded.

They are the acquisitive prize of $35,000 proudly sponsored by the Friends of Grafton Gallery (FoGG) and a nonacquisitive prize of $5000 for an early-career Artist.

The exhibition of works by selected fnalists will be on show at Grafton Regional Gallery from September 28 to November 24.

The JADA has been an important addition to the gallery since the frst drawing acquisition prize in 1988.

It began a process that has allowed the gallery to gather a unique and impressive collection of contemporary Australian drawing with more than 100 works acquired from leading, established, and emerging Australian artists.

The unique, and impressive JADA collection exemplifes the developments and changing parameters of contemporary drawing since 1988.

This collection explores the way that drawing remains a contemporary medium, demonstrating its relevance as a form of artistic expression.

The gallery’s collection contains varied, and extensive drawings, ranging from highly resolved articulate works to spontaneous expressive works that are mostly on paper.

In 1988 the Jacaranda Art Exhibition Prize was presented for the frst time with the support of the Jacaranda Art Society, as a specialised acquisitive Australian drawing prize.

The inaugural director of the gallery, Julian Faigan, made the decision to change the dynamics of the Jacaranda Society Art Prize from a various medium, open prize with four sections, to a specifc award for drawing.

This decision recognised the need for regional galleries to specialise in their collections to allow for the development of identity, to refect regional and historical difference, to encourage diversity and to reduce competition with other public institutions.

In 1994 the Jacaranda

Art Society exhibition became the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) and formed into the structure it still holds today; a biennial award with entries selected by a panel of art professionals for exhibition, from which the judge selects the acquisitive frst prize.

The Friends of the Gallery became the sole sponsors of a $5000 frst prize in 1998, with the gallery JADA fund enabling $5000 of further acquisitions for each award.

Over the years the prize value has increased to its