Do you have a partnership that helps build skills and opportunities for young and emerging artists?

AbaF (Australia Business Arts Foundation) works to support young and emerging artists with the Australia Council for the Arts, through the Australia Council Young and Emerging Artists Award. They are presented to acknowledge and celebrate practices in the private sector that support the arts through partnering, volunteering and giving. They are designed to honour relationships between the arts and private sectors in Australia.

The Awards are presented at a state and national level. State winners and national finalists are announced at AbaF Awards state events in August and September. National winners are announced at the National AbaF Awards dinner in October.

This Award is for partnerships between businesses and arts and cultural organisations (such as arts companies, arts service organisations and artist-run initiatives) that help to build skills, experience and opportunities for young and emerging artists.

For the purpose of this Award, ‘young’ refers to 30 years and under and ‘emerging’ as an artist in the first five years of their practice. To be eligible for this Award, the majority of artists involved in the partnership/program must meet either of these criteria.

If this sounds like you or your organisation, get your nominations in by Friday, 6 May, 2011.

For more information, visit the AbaF website.