Art Awards

The Art Awards are one of Queensland’s most prestigious regional art events and is eagerly anticipated each year. 

This year the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum is thrilled to host the 51st Rio Tinto Yarwun & QAL Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards.

MARK THE CALENDAR

Calling for submissions:
10am-4pm, Tuesday to Friday, 6-9 October and 10am-1pm, Saturday, 10 October 2026

GRAGM Closed for Installation:
12-30 October 2026

Exhibition Opens:
10am, Saturday 31 October 2026

Judge's Floor Talk and Illustrated Lecture:
10.30am, Saturday 31 October 2026

Official Opening and Awards Presentation:
6pm, Saturday 31 October 2026

QAL People's Choice Awards voting available:
10am, Saturday 31 October 2026 (Terms and Conditions attached below)

Exhibition Closes:
2pm, Saturday 23 January 2027

Collection of Works:
10am-4pm, Monday to Friday, 25-29 January and 10am-1pm, Saturday 30 January 2027

2026 SECTIONS AND PRIZES

51st Rio Tinto Yarwun & QAL Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award - $15,000

Pamela Whitlock Memorial Acquisitive Award - Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum $5,000
Pieter Groen-int-woud Memorial Young Emerging Artist Award - Multitrade $2,000
Local Murri Artist Award - Leo & Elizabeth Zussino $2,000
Local Artist Award - Gail Sellers $2,000
Installers' Choice Award - Queensland Energy Resources $2,000

QAL People’s Choice Awards
SECTION 1: Easel Works - QAL $500
SECTION 2: Works on Paper - QAL $500
SECTION 3: Three-Dimensional and Fibre Works - QAL $500
SECTION 4: Photography and Digital Works - QAL $500

SECTION 1: Easel Works
Mixed media, acrylic, collage, oil, paint, etc. on non-paper-based supports, e.g. canvas, masonite, etc.
First Prize - Central Apartment Group $3,000
Highly Commended - Central Queensland University $1,000

SECTION 2: Works on Paper
Drawing, watercolour, collage, mixed media, print, etc. on paper-based supports.
First Prize - Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum $3,000
Highly Commended - Australia Pacific LNG $1,000

SECTION 3: Three-Dimensional and Fibre Works
Pottery hand built/wheel thrown, sculpture including maquettes, carving, assemblage, timber, metal, stone, plastics, fibre, etc.
First Prize - Gladstone Ports Corporation $3,000
Highly Commended - Friends of the Theatre $1,000

SECTION 4: Photography and Digital Works
Photography, moving image, animation, soundscapes, etc.
First Prize - Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum $3,000
Highly Commended - McDonalds Boyne Island $1,000

2026 Judge 

Rachael Parsons, Director of New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM)

Rachael is an Australian curator, educator and academic, currently Director of NERAM. With more than 15 years’ experience, she has worked as an independent and institutional curator across university, commercial, public and artist-run spaces.

Prior to becoming Director, Rachael was NERAM’s Manager, Exhibitions and Curatorial, where she delivered diverse exhibition programs, including curating HINTON: Treasures of Australian Art, a permanent salon display drawn from NERAM’s significant Howard Hinton Collection.

Previously, Rachael was Curator, Digital Media at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Precincts, where she curated exhibitions of contemporary digital, new media and technology-based practice by local and international artists. She also curated the inaugural program at Side Gallery and was Co-Director of Brisbane artist-run initiative Vegas Spray, contributing to platforms including BNE Art and the Brisbane Experimental Arts Festival. Rachael has taught art theory and Creative Industries at QUT since 2008.

Judge's Illustrated Lecture: from 11.30am, Saturday 31 October 2026

Invasive Technology and the Death of Art... Again.

From the invention of the camera to the rise of artificial intelligence, each major technological shift has been met with the same familiar panic: this will be the end of art. This talk takes a sceptical look at that recurring claim, tracing how artists have repeatedly absorbed, resisted and repurposed new technologies rather than being replaced by them. Focusing on AI, the latest “existential threat” to creative practice, the discussion asks whether these tools truly signal the death of art—or simply expose long-standing anxieties about authorship, labour, originality and power. History suggests art doesn’t die so easily; it mutates, adapts and, often, thrives.

history of the awards

Since its inauguration in 1976, the Art Awards have become one of Queensland’s most prestigious regional art events and is eagerly anticipated each year. 

Martin Hanson (1923-1976) was a popular and highly-respected local businessman who was Member for Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Port Curtis 1963-1976, and patron to the Gladstone Artists Club. As a tribute to his patronage, in conjunction with the Hanson family, the Gladstone Artists Club held the first Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards and Exhibition in 1976.

The Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum became the custodian of the Hanson Awards in 1993.