Annual award to support upcoming artist

WITH Federation University’s annual end of year exhibition for graduating visual arts students wrapped up last month, the winner of the showcase’s SHAC Award has been revealed.

Tahlia Roberts has been selected to be mentored by members of Soldiers Hill Artist Collective.

She said she’s excited for the opportunities the award will bring.

“It’ll be great to gain experience from everyone,” she said.

“I find even though university’s great for stuff like that, networking and talking to actual artists who are in that professional atmosphere, they can pass on so much knowledge.

“I’m also very self-conscious about my work in that perfectionist sense so it’ll be nice to get perspectives from the other artists who are like-minded.”

Exhibiting ceramic, graphite, and photographic works as part of her EYE showcase, Roberts said each of the pieces were designed to capture a unifying theme.

“The whole thing was about how the human body stores both positive and negative emotion,” she said.

“When I made the larger drawing, called Betrayal, I was feeling trapped in betrayal, but the work serves as a whole collective question around the word ‘vessel’ and what it means.”

Established in 2021, SHAC Award recipients are given an honorary membership into the group for one year, as well as exhibiting and mentorship opportunities.

SHAC chair Cliff Adeney said the group has served as a launchpad for emerging Ballarat creatives for almost five years.

“For those that have engaged, they’ve had the benefit of exhibiting with us at least three times in the following year,” he said.

“It’s a real launchpad, because we’ve now got Tahlia’s work in our current show at Kilderkin Distillery.

“So, here she is, a graduating student, and she’s straight into an established exhibition with a group that has a fairly high profile in town and she’ll get the benefits of that.”

Roberts’ work is currently on show with SHAC as part of their SHAC’ N Not Stirred exhibition at Kilderkin Distillery.