Fair Trust Art Prize
Fair Trust Art Prize
Te Manawa is proud to partner with the Eileen Fair Charitable Trust to deliver the Fair Trust Art Prize.
The $40,000 Fair Trust Art Prize is one of the most substantial awards of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is awarded annually, by nomination, to a mid-career artist working in any genre, media, or practice. Recipients are selected based on how their work reflects socially relevant concepts and how their ideas are visually articulated.
Prize recipients are supported by our team to develop and deliver a solo exhibition for our beautiful modernist art gallery, alongside a series of public programmes involving the local community. Following the exhibition, one of the works will enter Te Manawa’s permanent art collection.
Inaugural recipient
Emily Hartley Skudder
Emily Hartley-Skudder (born 1988, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland) is a contemporary artist living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington.
Known for her hyper-realistic paintings, assemblages, and site-specific installations, Hartley-Skudder delves into the artificial ordinary and faux domestic, and mixes humour, feminism, desire, and bathroomware, offering a playful subversion of a historically male-dominated art world. On being awarded the prize, Emily reflects:
“I am so grateful to be the first recipient of the Fair Trust Art Prize. My exhibition will explore the historic women’s restroom ‘Ladies Rest’ in Te Marae o Hine (The Square) in Palmerston North. I want to use the exhibition to further shine a light on the everyday conveniences we take for granted and encourage audiences to consider what a safe space to rest really means.”
Hartley-Skudder graduated from Ilam School of Fine Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) in 2012. She has exhibited widely in Aotearoa and in New York, Australia, Japan, and China. In 2023, Emily was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow and Molly Morpeth Canaday Major Award Winner. She is represented by Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, and Jonathan Smart Gallery, Ōtautahi.
Learn more about Emily’s exhibition here
