2010 Closing Date: 1 March 

The Art & Australia/Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award supports emerging professional artists through publishing an image of the winner's work on the back cover of Art & Australia magazine and an article on the winner's practice, as well as the opportunity to be selected for the acquisition of their work to the Art & Australia collection. Entrants must be visual artists who have been practising professionally for no more than five years, and who have had their work publicly exhibited.

Four artists will be selected every 12 months using the following selection criteria:

• artistic merit and well-developed concepts.
• a well developed artistic practice and vision of a professional career.

Artistic merit will be judged on the basis of work completed to date. The applicant's commitment to furthering his/her career in the visual arts, will be assessed from information provided in the CV, artists statement and letters of recommendation by referees.

Unsuccessful applicants are welcome to re-apply, but successful applicants are ineligible for further assistance through this scheme.

Eligibility:

• You must be an emerging artist you have probably practised as a professional artist continually for less than 5 years but wish to develop your career in your chosen artform.
• You must be an Australian or New Zealand citizen, or have permanent resident status in Australia or New Zealand.

Applicants are required to:

• complete a typed or neatly handwritten submission on the Application Form
• supply support material including:
  • a curriculum vitae, no more than 1 x A4 pages in length
  • 8-10 images supporting your art practice. Digital images on CD or submitted on-line through the Artists Profile on this site (images no larger than 1MB). Visuals must be clearly labelled, with your name, title of work, year, media and orientation. Do not send original artwork
  • 2 professional references;
  • an artist statement (200-300 words) clearly and succinctly describing your recent work.
• send all this material to the National Association for the Visual Arts office with a stamped, self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage for return of visuals and letter of notification.

It is a condition of entry to the Award that the winner will grant a limited, non-exclusive copyright licence for Art & Australia to reproduce the work in the agreed issue of Art & Australia magazine and on the Art & Australia website for the purposes of promotion and for news reporting and review leading up to the following round of the competition. NAVA also will be granted a similar limited, non-exclusive copyright licence from the winning entrant to allow his/her work to be reproduced for the same purpose and for acquittal and annual reporting requirements.

Successful applicants may be asked to make themselves available to the media by phone, fax, email or in person following the announcement of winners. An event announcing the winners will be held in Sydney at a date to be advised.

Applications must reach the NAVA office, or be postmarked by, the above due date. Faxed applications will not be accepted.

Notification:

A shortlist of artists is selected by members of the Art & Australia advisory board. The final decision is made by staff of Art & Australia (in consultation with the advisory board).

Art & Australia is published quarterly, in March, June, September and December.

This is an Art & Australia scheme supported by Credit Suisse.