Dancer/choreographers Lee Serle and Antony Hamilton are among the 11 recipients of the first ever Australia Council for the Arts’ Creative Australia Fellowships, worth a total of $860,000.
The annual fellowships provide established artists with $100,000 for one year and early career artists with $60,000 over two years. Serle received the established artist fellowship, while Hamilton received the early career fellowship.
“The Creative Australia Fellowships are part of the Federal Government’s $10 million New Support for the Arts initiative, announced during the 2010 Election and delivered in last year’s Federal Budget,” Arts Minister Simon Crean said when announcing the recipients.
“These unique grants are not just about creating new works. They provide young and emerging artists with the valuable time and financial security to focus on their work and encourage them to experiment across art forms and explore new modes of practice.”
A total of 421 applications were received – 98 for the established artist category and 323 for the early career artist category.
Lee Serle is also the first Australian to have been selected by the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Initiative (in 2010/11), for which he undertook a mentorship with American choreographer Trisha Brown. His Fellowship will take him back to New York, where he will work with acclaimed choreographer Tere O’Connor, continuing his development of an evening length solo performance. In 2013, he will venture to Beirut in Lebanon, where he will embark a residency at the Zoukak Theatre Company. In between these ventures, he will work on developing his solo choreography in Melbourne, embark upon a residency program with Lucy Guerin Inc and hold workshops for the local artist community.
Hamilton is a familiar face on the contemporary dance stage. He was the inaugural recipient of both the Russell Page Fellowship (2004) and Tanja Liedtke Fellowship (2009). He will use his Fellowship to work with a range of artists from different fields including an industrial designer, performance artist, visual artist and sound artist to create work that transcends the boundaries of the art forms. The collaborations will take him from Melbourne to Europe.
For more information, visit www.australiacouncil.gov.au/creativeaustraliafellowships