Show entries prove it's time for a Maitland Art Prize

Maitland Show Art Prize chief steward Amorelle Dempster said there was an exceptional amount of talent within the Maitland community and it needs to be recognised.

She supports the creation of a Maitland Art Prize, saying it would give Maitland artists another chance to compete and show off their work in their home town.

She envisages the city having a Maitland Show Art Prize, which would run in conjunction with the Maitland Show each February, and a Maitland Art Prize which would be held at a different venue later in the year.

Related: The winners from the 2024 Maitland Show Art Prize

"Everyone is talking about it, there's a lot of support for a Maitland Art Prize," she said.

"Why should our artists have to travel out of Maitland to enter art prizes in other areas when we could easily have a big art prize here?."

Ms Dempster said 85 artists entered the 2024 Maitland Show Art Prize and the biggest prize on offer was $2000.

"The level of creativity we had in the entries for the Maitland Show Art Prize was astounding. I had no idea there were so many artists in Maitland," she said.

"Ninety-five per cent of the entries we had came from artists who lived in the Maitland Local Government Area. That's quite exceptional."

Ms Dempster would like to see the Maitland Art Prize have an even larger prize than the Maitland Show Art Prize.

"We need a really big prize to attract artists from outside the city and encourage them to come and enter their works," she said.

"It would be a big attraction and it would be good for tourism in the city as well."