Founding members of Sydney punk band the Hard-Ons; internationally acclaimed experimental artist Robin Fox, whose practice ranges from audio visual laser works to composing for contemporary dance; prize-winning poet Judith Beveridge; and visual artist Uncle Paul Constable-Calcott, a Wiradjuri man and advocate for people living with disability, especially First Nations people, are among the 12 deserving recipients of this year’s Creative Australia Awards.
Creative Australia Awards – quick links
What are the Creative Australia Awards?
Celebrating artists whose work continues to shape and expand the nation’s creative life, acknowledging artists at all stages of practice and presented annually by Creative Australia, this year’s awards were presented at a ceremony held at Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art on Tuesday night (18 November).
‘These artists are bold, visionary and deeply connected to community. Whether redefining their artform or amplifying voices too often unheard, their work reminds us of the transformative power of creativity in Australian life,’ said Creative Australia CEO Adrian Collette AM.
Creative Australia Award for Dance ($25,000): Rosalind Crisp
For 40 years Rosalind Crisp has challenged the codes of contemporary dance, rigorously dance-asking the question: ‘What has dance got to say?’
She situates the dancer as art maker. Her works emerge from sustained studio practice and long-term exchange with an international, multi-disciplinary team of colleagues. Crisp, who was born in the East Gippsland town of Omeo in 1958, performs worldwide. She is currently commissioned by Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company and is based in regional Victoria.
Creative Australia Award for Theatre ($25,000): Kate Champion
For over 30 years, Champion has worked as a theatre and dance-theatre director in genres ranging from devised work and new Australian plays to classics, comedy, multi-art form, interactive and physical theatre.
She was the founding Artistic Director/CEO of Sydney company Force Majeure and has worked with numerous companies and organisations across Australia, including Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, State Theatre Company South Australia, Melbourne Theatre Company, Performing Lines, Opera Australia, The Hayes, Ensemble, the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the National Institute of Circus Arts and the National Theatre of Parramatta.
Champion currently serves as the Artistic Director of Black Swan State Theatre Company in Western Australia, where she has directed Things I Know to Be True, Dirty Birds, The Pool, Prima Facie and Never Have I Ever.
Champion works extensively both on large-scale projects as well as in the small to-medium and independent theatre scene. Champion is currently directing Meow Meow’s Red Shoes, which opens at Malthouse Theatre on 21 November and will have additional seasons at Black Swan and Belvoir St Theatre in 2026.
Creative Australia Award for Visual Arts ($25,000): Jenny Watson
Jenny Watson is one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists. Since 1973, she has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally, most notably representing Australia at the 1993 Venice Biennale – the first solo female Australian artist to do so.
Major survey exhibitions of her work have been held at Heide Museum of Modern Art (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2017), Griffith University Art Museum (2016) and the Potter Museum of Art (2012).
Her work is represented in all major Australian state galleries and in international collections including those in Belgium, Germany, Japan and Austria. Watson has exhibited with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery since 1982.
Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature ($25,000): Judith Beveridge
Judith Beveridge was born in London in 1956 and moved to Sydney in 1960 where she has lived ever since. Her first book, The Domesticity of Giraffes, was published in 1987 and won major prizes. Since then, she has published seven volumes, including Sun Music: New and Selected Poems (Giramondo Publishing, 2018), which won the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry in 2019.
She taught poetry writing for 16 years at the University of Sydney and was the poetry editor of Meanjin for 10 years. Her work has been studied in universities and schools and has won numerous awards. Her latest book is Tintinnabulum (Giramondo Publishing, 2024).
Creative Australia Arts and Disability Award – Established ($50,000): Uncle Paul Constable-Calcott
Uncle Paul Constable-Calcott is an artist, an advocate for people living with disability, and someone who strives to bring social change to benefit people living with disability, particularly First Nations people.
Surviving polio as a child and inspired by his parents, he sees disability as providing opportunity to tell a story of resilience. Constable-Calcott brings this together with a lifelong involvement in visual arts to advocate for people living with disability, and to support them in finding their community and expressing their own stories of survival and strength, often using the visual arts to provide a cultural platform.
Creative Australia Arts and Disability Award – Early Career ($20,000): Yousef Alreemawi
Yousef Alreemawi is a multi-disciplinary Palestinian-Australian artist whose practice spans music, cultural education, translation, community work and disability advocacy.
He is founder of the Tarab Ensemble, dedicated to the rich tradition of instrumental Arabic music, and is known for his deep community engagement and mentorship of young artists. Alreemawi’s practice sits at the intersection of culture, disability and identity. His work is grounded in collaboration and cultural exchange, bringing together artists and audiences across different musical traditions and lived experiences.
Creative Australia Arts and Disability Award – Early Career ($20,000): Honor Eastly
Honor Eastly is an award-winning artist and mental health advocate whose work challenges stigma and reimagines how we talk about psychological distress.
Her acclaimed ABC podcast No Feeling Is Final – an experimental memoir about her own experiences of chronic suicidality – was praised by The New York Times, The Atlantic and TIME, and named an Apple Podcasts ‘Series Essential’. She later adapted the podcast into a sold-out multimedia performance for The Big Anxiety Festival.
Eastly co-founded The Big Feels Club, which has reached over one million people and helped individuals and workplaces better support people with long-term mental health conditions. She won the Australian Mental Health Prize for her advocacy and creative work.
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Ros Bower Award for Community Arts and Cultural Development – Established ($25,000): Scotia Monkivitch
Scotia Monkivitch is a cultural leader with extensive experience in education, mentoring, strategic planning, project management, research and community cultural development. She specialises in programs supporting people experiencing disability, disadvantage, mental health challenges, creative ageing and those in rural or remote communities.
As Founder and Executive Officer of the Creative Recovery Network, Monkivitch leads national initiatives embedding culture and creativity in Australia’s disaster management system. Her creative practice spans movement-based theatre, installation-performance, film, live art and online collaboration. Monkivitch’s work bridges communities, organisations and government to strengthen the role of arts and culture in social recovery and resilience.
Kirk Robson Award for Community Arts and Cultural Development – Under 30 ($10,000): Moale James-Proud
Moale James-Proud has worn many hats – artist, writer, journalist, curator, producer – but at her core she is a storyteller, sharing her own narrative or amplifying the voices of others.
Raised in a community of educators and artists, including musicians, dancers, weavers, performers and storytellers, she developed a deep passion for storytelling across various mediums including live events, theatre, podcasts, print media, photography, spoken word and community workshops.
Her experience spans community arts projects, non-profit organisations, grassroots initiatives, private institutions, and government arts agencies. Through her work, James-Proud strives to embody values that uplift community, encourage deep listening, empower others, foster a better for future generations, create safe spaces for women and matriarchs, and protect energy and spirit.
Creative Australia Award for Emerging Experimental Arts ($25,000): Robin Fox
Robin Fox is an internationally recognised audio-visual artist and composer whose work spans live performance, exhibitions, public art and composition for contemporary dance. His AV laser works, which synchronise sound and visual electricity in hyper-amplified 3D space, have been performed in over 70 cities worldwide.
His critically acclaimed performance work TRIPTYCH premiered at Unsound Krakow in late 2022 and has toured extensively since, with highlights including Berlin Atonal, Barbican (London), Ephemera (Warsaw) and the Lincoln Centre New York, among many others. TRIPTYCH was awarded the Isao Tomita Special Prize for electronic music at Ars Electronica 2023.
Fox is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of MESS.
Since 2008 he has composed music for over 25 contemporary dance works (many nominated for Green Room and Helpmann awards) working with Australian choreographic luminaries such as Stephanie Lake, Gideon Obarzanek, Lucy Guerin and Antony Hamilton.
In 2019, Fox’s science fiction opera DIASPORA premiered at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Made in collaboration with Chamber Made, the work won Green Room Awards for Best Production and Best Visual Design. In 2020, Fox received the Music Victoria Award for Best Experimental Act.
Creative Australia Don Banks Music Award ($25,000): Peter Black
Peter ‘Blackie’ Black is the co-founder, guitarist, main songwriter and sometime singer of legendary Sydney punks the Hard-Ons, who formed in 1982 and had an unparalleled 17 consecutive number ones on the alternative chart in their original run.
Hard-Ons have directly inspired generations of Australian punk and rock bands and count the likes of Dave Grohl and Henry Rollins amongst their fans. The band has toured the world numerous times and are the subject of two documentary feature films, the first of which, The Most Australian Band Ever! (2024), focuses on Hard-Ons’ multi-ethnicity and the barriers they had to break through to get heard.
In addition to the Hard-Ons, Black also fronts Nunchukka Superfly together with fellow Hard-Ons co-founder Ray Ahn, and he has recorded numerous solo albums – the eighth and ninth are set for release soon.
In 2016, Black undertook and completed the challenge of releasing a song a day for the entire year. Not acoustic solo home recordings, not covers, this was fully fleshed original material, with a drummer and occasional guest instrumentalists including the Hoodoo Gurus’ Dave Faulkner, with each song properly mixed and mastered.
Creative Australia Don Banks Music Award ($25,000): Raymond Ahn
Raymond Ahn is a founding member of Sydney band the Hard-Ons, for which he plays bass, sings and composes, and also provides visual art. Ahn has been performing live and releasing recordings without pause since 1982. His position as a musician of East Asian heritage has been profoundly influential to many.
Ahn has been a fierce champion of the DIY ethic, deliberately walking an independent path of creativity, always putting his art and music ahead of any other concerns including commercial ones. Since day one, Ahn has considered music to be a wildly adventurous endeavour; the genre-defying Hard-Ons are a testament to his life-long vision.
