Create NSW and MCA Australia open search for 2019/20 New Dimensions Fellow

Applications are now open for the 2019/20 New Dimensions – NSW Visual Arts (Established) Fellowship, in the second year of a Create NSW and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) partnership.

The Fellowship supports the ongoing professional practice of visual arts practitioners in NSW, with Create NSW awarding a Fellow $30,000 in funding to undertake a self-directed professional development program or other significant opportunity.

Further support for an additional project or acquisition is provided by the MCA up to the value of $20,000.

Create NSW Partnerships and Policy Director Alex Bowen said, “The chance to progress your professional practice and learn from the creative team behind ‘the world's most visited contemporary art museum’ is an opportunity not to be missed.

“We’re excited to continue this partnership as we aim to spur on our established visual artists to even greater heights,” she said.

MCA Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE said, “It’s fantastic to be working in partnership again with Create NSW on this important fellowship which offers support to established artists from across the State.

“We are committed to helping contemporary artists realise their ambitions and develop their ideas into tangible projects, supported by the MCA and Create NSW. We look forward to collaborating with the awarded Fellow and seeing how their project develops.”

Last year’s inaugural Fellowship was awarded to internationally celebrated Marrickville-based artist Denis Beaubois, who is using his funding for a professional development program focused on ‘language, polyethnic nationalism and sovereignty’ in his home country of Mauritius and to investigate virtual reality techniques with which to present his work.

Beaubois said of the opportunity, “This Fellowship opportunity has allowed me to invest in my practice, take chances and explore ideas that previously seemed too daunting to undertake.

“It’s provided me with the resources and time to develop new skills in the area of Augmented Reality by allowing me to undertake a 12-week mixed reality course, as well as travel back to Mauritius to research the Creole Language, and ideas around a multi-ethnic form of nationalism and some family history.

“From this research I have embarked on a new body of works that differs both in medium and ideas from my traditional practice. I look forward to working with the MCA as these works become consolidated and realised in the next 12 months,” he said.

Applications for the 2019/20 NSW Visual Arts (Mid-Career/Established) Fellowship are now

open and close 5pm Thursday 19 December 2019. Full guidelines and information can be found here.

Image: naa (to see or look), Jonathan Jones 2015 (previous Visual Arts Fellow), installation view Luminous: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2015, fluorescent tubes, fittings, electrical cable Museum of Contemporary Art commission purchased with funds provided by the MCA Foundation, 2015, image courtesy and © the artist (image credit Christopher Snee)