Henry Jock Walker (SA), Helen Grogan (VIC) and Hannah Gartside (VIC) have been announced as the 2025 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship recipients.
Each artist will receive a scholarship that provides institutional fees for one academic year of study, a $70,000 tax-free allowance, and travel expenses to a leading international art school of their choice.
Erica Green, Director of the Samstag Museum of Art, which administers the scholarships program, congratulates the 2025 scholars on their achievement.
"The Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship is a life-changing professional opportunity," Green says.
"It enables artists to develop their artistic capacities, skills and networks outside Australia through a dedicated period of practice-based learning.
"We know from experience that it is personally and artistically transformative."
This year's three recipients encompass diverse approaches to making art. Their processes and materials include moving image, wall-based work, collective and socially engaged practice, site specific and installation, as well as kinetic textile objects.
The selection committee for the 2025 Samstag Scholarships comprised Erica Green, Director, Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia; Michael Kutschbach, 2005 Samstag Scholar and Lecturer, Contemporary Art, University of South Australia; and 1994 Samstag Scholar Dr Megan Walch.
The selection panel noted:
"This year the three successful artists each impressed us in their own way. Henry Jock Walker's work showed maturity, vitality and connected the various strands of his diverse practice with a written application that made a forceful case for further study.
"Helen Grogan's site-specific installations comprising of objects and moving image demonstrated intellectual and spatial curiosity, conceptual rigour and a quiet, compelling precision.
"Hannah Gartside's sculptural textile and kinetic installations possess a sensual, playful and tactile materiality. Steeped in the history of theatre, wardrobe and fashion, Gartside identified the Netherlands, a historical centre for textiles, as a site of study. We had no difficulty imagining her excelling in this rich cultural environment."
In response to the announcement, Samstag has commissioned South Australian writer Melinda Rackham to introduce the artists through texts that distil their respective art practices.
The announcement coincides with 2024 Samstag Scholars Min Wong, Ash Tower, and Yasmin Smith arriving at their respective institutions of learning across Berlin, Rome and London to begin their studies.
The competitive national scholarship program, established in 1992, is open to art school students, and graduates. 151 scholarships have been awarded to date.
Previous Samstag scholars include Sam Mountford and Inneke Taal from 2023; Elyas Alavi from 2019; 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres artists Julian Day and Mikala Dwyer; 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Divided Worlds artists Kristian Burford, Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy, Timothy Horn, Hayden Fowler, Julie Gough and Nike Savvas; 21st Biennale of Sydney artist Nicholas Mangan; 2019 The National: New Australian Art artists Nicholas Folland, James Nguyen and nova Milne; 2020 Adelaide Studios Artist Residency recipient and Madison Bycroft; and Adelaide Film Festival and Samstag Museum of Art 2020 Art & Moving Image Commission recipient Soda Jerk.
For the full list, visit https://unisa.edu.au/connect/samstag-museum/scholarship/
Samstag scholarships are awarded by the University of South Australia on behalf of the Trustee of the estate of Gordon Samstag, the celebrated American artist who taught at the South Australian School of Art in the 1960s.
