Launched in 2004, The Melbourne Prize Trust was established with a vision to recognise and reward excellence and talent, inspire creative development and enrich public life by providing opportunities to develop local creative resources.

The annual Melbourne Prize is one of the most valuable creative development prizes of its kind in Australia. First offered in 2005, it provides significant opportunities for three important cultural sectors. The prize runs in a three-year cycle, which includes the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture, the Melbourne Prize for Literature and the Melbourne Prize for Music.

Entering its fourth cycle and tenth year in 2014, the Melbourne Prize already has some impressive alumni among its winners. It continues to provide financial, professional development, equipment and exhibition opportunities for Victorian artists. Funding for each prize and public exhibition is provided through a collaboration of public, private and corporate partnerships – creating cross-sector networks to directly benefit the arts and foster community investment.

Convening a high-profile judging panel each year enables leaders in each sector to be exposed to a broad range of artistic talent and gives artists an opportunity to profile their work to eminent professionals in their field.

The Artist in Residence program engages artists with tertiary institutions. Each annual Melbourne Prize is valued around $100,000, depending on the range of prize categories in each sector.

The major events of the Melbourne Prize each year include a free two-week public exhibition of finalists, an awards event held each November at Federation Square and a major awards night at Deakin Edge. Since its inception, the annual Melbourne Prize has made close to $1 million worth of prizes available, including artist residencies, equipment grants and an annual public exhibition to writers, sculptors and musicians – including a free catalogue.

The Melbourne Prize was founded in 2004 by the Trust’s Executive Director, Melburnian Simon Warrender, following the unveiling of the children’s garden precinct at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne and the commissioning of The Magic Pudding sculpture by Louis Lauman in 2000. The sculpture was generously funded by Lyndsey Cattermole AM. Proceeds from the sale of a limited edition of miniatures of the Botanic Gardens landmark sculpture contribute to the trust.

Mr Warrender researched as to whether other major world capitals had cultural awards to recognise and reward excellence and talent, and develop their cultural resources.

He couldn’t see any, so he decided to develop the annual prize. He said it is important to demonstrate the value of our arts and culture, and provide signficant reward for excellence. To give it significant public exposure, he decided to award the prize at Federation Square each year and hold a public exhibition for finalists.

This year, the judges chose a list of finalists for the Melbourne Prize for Music 2013, which showcased Victoria’s abundance of music talent across a range of genres. Brett Dean won the Melbourne Prize for Music 2013, Stephen Magnusson won the Outstanding Musicians Award 2013, Kate Kelsey-Sugg won the Development Award 2013 and Mick Harvey the Civic Choice Award 2013. Over $100,000 in prize funds as well as international air travel and a residency at The University of Melbourne were awarded to local musicians.

An estimated 396,795 visitors came to The Atrium at Federation Square during the exhibition that ran from November 8 to November 22 this year.

For further information please visit: www.melbourneprizetrust.org