Olive Cotton Award – conditions of entry

• 2025 Olive Cotton Award Guest Judge Sally McInerney. Photo Mohsen Soltani.
  Sally McInerney, photographer and daughter of Olive Cotton. A highly accomplished exhibiting photographic artist, Sally has eleven solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions and publications to her credit. She was the winner of Sydney Life in 2012, the Head On Portrait Prize in 2006, and, at age 16, the Sydney Morning Herald High School Prize for best black and white print. Sally began taking photographs with a Box Brownie camera as a young child, and her colour photographic series is recognised for its deeply humane approach, gentle humour and sublime beauty. In 2005, she was the inaugural Olive Cotton Award Guest Judge.

• 2025 Olive Cotton Award Guest Judge Glenn Iseger-Pilkington. Photo Rebecca Mansell.
  Glenn Iseger-Pilkington (Nhanda Yamatji and Noongar Peoples/Dutch/Scottish), Director of Content, Strategy Partnerships for the Aboriginal Cultural Centre Project (Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, WA). Glenn has held curatorial roles at Fremantle Art Centre, Walyalup, South Australian Museum, WA Museum Boola Bardip, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and has exhibited nationally as a practicing artist working in photography and printmaking.

• 2025 Olive Cotton Award Guest Judge Angela Connor.
  Angela Connor, Senior Curator, Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh), Vic. Angela oversees a program of exhibitions which contribute to art scholarship and the advancement of photography. As Senior Curator, Angela also develops and manages the museum’s nationally significant art collection of approximately 4,000 works. She has curated a range of exhibitions at MAPh, including Izabela Pluta and Kiron Robinson: Hollow (2024); Murray Fredericks/The salt lake (2023); and Peter Milne/Lovers and misfits (2022). In 2024, Connor curated in collaboration with PHOTO 2024, Edward Burtynsky: Extraction. She is the editor of The basement: photography from Prahran College (1968–1981) (Museum of Australian Photography 2025) and Robert Owen – A Book of Encounters (Perimeter Editions 2021), launched at Heide Museum of Modern Art as part of a survey exhibition.

• 2025 Olive Cotton Award Guest Judge Shaune Lakin.
  Shaune Lakin, Senior Curator, Photography at the National Gallery of Australia, ACT. Previous roles include Gallery Director, Monash Gallery of Art (now Museum of Australian Photography) and Senior Curator of Photography at the Australian War Memorial. Shaune’s curatorial projects are usually collaborative, often with colleague Anne O’Hehir, and tend to focus on the histories of feminist photography in Australia. Recent projects include work on the artists Olive Cotton, Peter Maloney and Carol Jerrems. Shaune was the Olive Cotton Award Guest Judge in 2017.

The $20,000 first prize is acquisitive, and the winning entry is automatically acquired for the permanent collection of the Gallery.

The Friends of Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre Inc. fund the Director’s Choice Award (purchase acquisition) up to the value of $4,000 plus GST. The artwork is purchased at the wholesale value (retail price less Gallery commission). The winner is required to submit an invoice to Tweed Shire Council for payment. Instructions for invoicing will be advised.

The Friends of Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre Inc. fund an additional $1,500 People’s Choice Award to be announced following the conclusion of the exhibition. The winner is required to submit an invoice to Tweed Shire Council for payment. Instructions for invoicing will be advised.

The Olive Cotton Award is open to artists living and working in Australia who are Australian citizens or have been Australian residents for 12 months or more.

Entry is limited to 2 entries only per person, artistic duo or collective.

The Olive Cotton Award is not open to employees of Tweed Shire Council or their immediate family members.

Each entry must:

• be a new portrait completed since May 2023, owned and created by the artist
• not have been previously exhibited (including online but excluding the entrant’s personal website or social media platforms), shown in competitions, or awarded a prize. Artists who are required to exhibit their work for assessment purposes may enter exhibited work but should indicate this on their entry form
• be photographic, archivally sound, still and two-dimensional
• comply with the size limits and able to be hung on or pinned to Gallery walls
• contain your best estimate of finished size in centimetres.

The entry fee is $35.00 (incl. GST) per entry, paid online at the time of submitting the entry form. The entry fee is not refundable under any circumstances. It is the responsibility of the artist to ensure that they meet all conditions of entry. The entry form and entry fee must be submitted online by 5 pm Tuesday 13 May 2025.

Each entry should be uploaded as a digital file only. The digital file must be a JPEG file, of no more than 6 MB in size. Please name your file using the format: SURNAME_First name_Title. Suggested picture size is approximately 2,000 pixels on the longest side.

Maximum size limits of 100 × 150 cm (portrait) or 150 × 100 cm (landscape) or 100 × 100 cm (square) apply to all entries. Overall dimensions must include:

• Framed submissions – frame and any protuberances.
• Unframed submissions – any border or handling area.

There is no minimum size.

During pre-selection, judges will view all digital entries and select approximately 60 artworks as finalists for exhibition. The judges will be looking for work that fulfils all conditions of entry, and in particular the judges will be looking for excellence in photographic technique, creativity and originality.

The Gallery aims to advise entrants of the pre-selection outcome by email on Monday 2 June 2025. After pre-selection, finalist images may be posted to social media or other sites announcing their selection for the exhibition.

Entries selected for exhibition must be delivered to the Gallery ready to hang, and must comply with size limits, framing and display requirements.

A framed entry must be framed to professional standards and ready to hang with D-rings attached to rear, 6 cm down from the top on both sides of the frame. Please do not attach strings or wires. For safe travel and handling consider using Perspex glazing.

Please attach a label to the back of framed artwork that clearly states “2025 Olive Cotton Award, [Artist’s Name], [Entry Title]”.

An unframed entry is accepted where this presentation is integral to the artwork. Unframed work will be hung using pins. It is recommended that you reinforce corners on the reverse side. Alternatively, the Gallery will add reinforcing if it is considered that it is required. Unframed works are handled with care but are submitted at the entrant’s risk. The Gallery reserves the right to not display any work considered unsafe or unsuitable for public display.

All transport arrangements and costs of delivering the work to the Gallery, including insurance, are the responsibility of the entrant. Packaging must be suitable for delivery and return. The Gallery will take all care but can accept no responsibility for work that arrives damaged. Should this occur, entrants will be contacted in writing the day the work is unwrapped. Finalists must provide an insurance value for the artwork when requested. This value may need to be substantiated if an insurance claim is made.

For the 20-year anniversary, the Gallery will coordinate and pay for the return freight of any unsold works at the conclusion of the Olive Cotton Award Finalist Exhibition, with a provider of the Gallery’s choice. Return locations must be in Australia only. (Note: In the instance that a freight provider can only return artwork to the nearest depot, artists will be notified to arrange transport from the depot to the final destination.)

The Gallery will maintain adequate insurance cover against loss, damage, theft or destruction of the artwork for the period of the Olive Cotton Award Finalist Exhibition, and for unsold returning artworks, from the Gallery to the agreed return address. Finalists will be contacted in writing and must make themselves available to receive the work on the agreed date. Any additional freight or storage costs incurred by artists not available to receive works on agreed date will be the responsibility of the artist.

All exhibited entries must be for sale. The Gallery will deduct commission at 33% (30% + GST) from the sale price of sold artworks and will not share commission with other galleries. Payments to artists will be made after the exhibition has concluded and the Gallery has received payment for the sold artwork.

Artists whose work has sold are required to submit an invoice to Tweed Shire Council requesting payment of the wholesale value (sale price less Gallery commission). Artists with no ABN must also complete a Statement by a Supplier form found on the Australian Taxation Office website. Invoicing requirements will be advised following artwork sale.

Finalists’ entries must be delivered to the Gallery, ready to hang and clearly marked “OCA” on the outside of parcel, along with entrant name and entry title. Receiving dates are between Monday 28 July and Friday 1 August 2025 (to be confirmed on notification to finalists).

Entries may not be removed from the exhibition before Monday 3 November 2025.

Artists who wish to collect their artwork unwrapped, in person, may do so between Monday 3 and Wednesday 5 November 2025.

Artists who wish to collect their artwork wrapped in its original packaging, in person, may do so between Monday 10 and Wednesday 12 November 2025.

The Gallery will coordinate and pay for the return of all other unsold artworks, with a provider of the Gallery’s choice, by 2 December 2025.

The Gallery will make efforts to contact all artists whose works remain uncollected or unreceived to arrange collection. Works not received or collected within 4 months from the conclusion of the finalist exhibition will be destroyed.

Selected finalists will be exhibited at the Gallery from Saturday 16 August to Sunday 2 November 2025. The Gallery reserves the right to curate the exhibition as it sees fit, including a double hang of artwork.

Judging is scheduled for Friday 29 August 2025, following which the Gallery will attempt to contact the winner of the $20,000 Olive Cotton Award and the winner of the Director’s Choice Award so they can arrange to attend the announcement if possible. Award winners will be announced at the official exhibition opening on Saturday 30 August 2025, at 5 pm for 5:45 pm speeches.

All entrants warrant that each entry is an original artwork that they have created. All entrants warrant that they own all title in the physical artwork and the copyright in the artwork. Nothing in this agreement affects the ownership of copyright, which remains with the artist throughout.

The Gallery will attribute the artist and artwork details on the Gallery website, social media posts, printed material and reporting documents, including the use of the copyright symbol ©.

All finalists selected for the exhibition agree to provide a non-exclusive, non-commercial licence to the Gallery for the purpose of publicity and promotion of the Olive Cotton Award.

Entries (including ‘Artist statement’ and ‘Artist biography’) that are selected for exhibition may be reproduced, with applicable artist credit line, in print and electronic media including, but not limited to, exhibition catalogues, entry forms, information sheets, and online. The licence is for a 3-year period from the commencement of the exhibition for the purpose of promoting the entry, the artist and the Olive Cotton Award.

The Gallery reserves the right to reproduce any finalist’s work in subsequent publications by the Gallery in relation to the award, including the end of year review, and to reproduce the award winner and any further acquisitions in relation to the Gallery’s permanent collection. A new licence agreement will be provided for artworks entering the Gallery’s collection.

The Gallery will not make any unreasonable changes without permission to any image of the work which is reproduced for the above purposes. The Gallery notes that the standard format for images in its catalogue is to fit images into a square, which requires some cropping. If a selected finalist does not want their work to be cropped for this or any other reproduction, they must inform the Gallery at the time of entry.

The Gallery may edit (for example, shorten) the artist statement and biography for reproduction purposes.

The Gallery recognises Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights that Indigenous people have, and want to have, to protect their traditional arts and culture. Entrants whose work contains ICIP material warrant that they have all appropriate cultural permissions to use such ICIP material in their artwork.

The Gallery acknowledges that ICIP material contained in artwork entries must only be dealt with in accordance with community protocols and customary laws. Entrants must inform the Gallery if there are any such community protocols and customary laws affecting the display of the artwork or reproduction of images in Gallery publicity and promotional material. This should be done in writing via the online entry form.

Finalists will have the opportunity to review the information they have provided before the artwork is installed. Nothing in these conditions of entry transfers or excludes any applicable cultural rights in favour of the Australian Indigenous people that may be implemented under Australian law.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be used in the creation of the photographic portrait, but AI-generated content must not constitute a substantive part of the final artwork.

Entrants using generative AI tools in the creative process must provide details on how and to what extent the AI was used in the creation of the artwork and the specific tools used. The entrants must read the information sheets on AI and Copyright (links below) prior to submitting their artwork(s), and warrant that all required consents have been obtained, including but not limited to any copyright or intellectual property material, names, images and/or likeness contained in the AI tools used.

The Gallery reserves the right to exclude any entry considered to contain substantive AI-generated content.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Copyright – Arts Law Centre of Australia

Copyright Information Sheet – Arts Law Centre of Australia

The artist must obtain informed written consent from their subject(s), or parent/guardian if under 18 years of age or provide reason if this was not needed or possible.

Tuesday 13 May 2025, by 5 pm. Late entries cannot be accepted.

Exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 16 August. Official opening and award announcement is Saturday 30 August, 5 pm for 5:45 pm speeches.