The Living

Insightful, entertaining, and a little tongue in cheek, The Living Artist is the story of what happens when a lucrative arts prize is offered in a small community, the community from which the money will also be raised. When the artists all know each other and the judges know all the artists, can the process be fair, balanced and focused?

Prue Acton, ex fashion icon and now painter living and working in the Bega Valley, founded The Living Artist Project, a $35000 scholarship to be given to a local emerging artist. This arts prize is one of the most lucrative in Australia, and it’s being raised and offered in an inherently small regional area.

The idea is for emerging artists living on the Far South Coast of NSW to be given the chance to step up and take their practice to another level; to gain a national profile and become sustainable as a working artist, something very hard to achieve outside of a ‘big city’.
The hope is that the arts scene in the area can continue to grow and attract people to what is a beautiful but very poor socio-economic region. With dairy farming on the decline and no other industry to speak of, tourism is crucial to keep the place alive.

The applicants for the scholarship range from a forty something ex alcoholic to a single mother of four to a twenty seven year old art school graduate, and the practices from video art to basketry to printmaking, making the decisions tough and opinions varied. The judges must not only set aside their preferences in relation to the art forms but also their personal opinions of the applicants.

The story follows the artists as they struggle to apply for this scholarship amongst rumours, personal dislikes and self doubts. For them this would mean the chance to step up and give their art a chance to hold it’s own, to give up their café jobs and centrelink benefits and become a fully fledged practicing artist.

Director Cian O’Clery follows this tale with full access to the judging process, panel interviews and meetings as we are taken on a journey down to the Bega Valley and ‘behind the curtain’ on this competition.

‘The Living Artist’ is intimate and fun, and with colourful and candid characters, takes the viewer into the drama and tension of a year in the life of a regional arts competition.