Opportunities and awards

$130,000 portrait prize open for entries, plus winners of the Sydney Theatre Awards, finalists of the Novel Prize, and more!
A collage of APRA Professional Development Awards finalists, featuring cropped headshots. L to R: BARKAA (an Australian First Nations woman with dark skin, a high tight pony tail and a bold makeup look), Becca Hatch (a woman with light tan skin and curly brown hair, resting her head on her hand), Harvey Sutherland (a man with pale skin, blue eyes and brown short ahir, wearing a white top looking to the side), Gabriel Strum (a man with pale skin, wearing a cap and round glasses, smiling at the camera), Charlie Collins (a black and white photo of a woman with dark skin and dark hair, her hands resting face up and sitting in a cross legged position.

Lester Prize 2025

The Lester Prize for portraiture returns in 2025 with more than $130,000 in prize money for the winning finalists. Entries are welcome from everyone, with the finalists’ exhibition featuring established artists alongside those who may only be at the beginning of their careers. In addition to its Main Awards, The Lester Prize also runs a Youth Awards category, open to all high school students across Australia.
Early-bird applications close 18 March for the main prize, and entries close 5 March for the Youth Awards; learn more and apply.

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Celina Lei is ArtsHub's Content Manager. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. She took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs and was the project manager of ArtsHub’s diverse writers initiative, Amplify Collective. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne. Instagram @lleizy_