The Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award at Werribee Park was Australia's most financially rewarding prize for sculpture, instituted in 2000, and providing a total of A$145,000 in prizes to award recipients each year.[1] The last award was made in 2008. In 2009, the trustees of the Helen Lempriere Bequest announced that the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award would not be made, and the award is now defunct.
In 2009, the award was withheld when a new selection process for finalists (a change from application to invitation) resulted in what The Age newspaper called 'a disaster',[2] when an insufficient number of entries of good standard led to the withholding of the exhibition and award for that year. The trustees of the Helen Lempriere Bequest, Perpetual Private Wealth, announced in December 2009 that the award would no longer be made. Rather than being organised under its own auspices at Werribee Park, the award would instead be absorbed into the Sydney-based Sculpture by the Sea award.
On 23 December 2009, David Knowles of Perpetual Private Wealth announced that the new manager of the Lempriere award would be the Sculpture by the Sea organisation,[3] and that in 2010, the award would comprise three A$30,000 scholarships for sculptors.
Until the award's restructuring in 2009, an exhibition of the finalists was held each year in the grounds of Werribee Park, Werribee, Victoria, Australia. The award was acquisitive, and winners were brought into the collection displayed along the Sculpture Walk at Werribee Park. The local government authority, Wyndham City Council, would also purchase works for deployment as sculptural installations in the municipality.[4] The future of the collection at Werribee Park remains unresolved; Perpetual Private Wealth has announced a separate review.[5]
2016Jennifer Turpin (NSW), operation crayweedGeoffrey Bartlett (VIC), embraceHanna Hoyne (ACT), cosmic trumpet & embrace 2Norton Flavell (WA), just another
2015Orest Keywan (NSW), and the ship sails on (with apologies to f.f.)Dale Miles (NSW), parallel thinking spaceSamantha Small (ACT), stalemate Mk II
2014Elaine Clocherty, gamma gamma – stormJock Clutterbuck, oceania cartoucheKoichi Ishino, wind stone – the threshold of consciousness
2013Lucy Humphrey, horizonFrancesca Matagara, a to bPaul Selwood, the museum
2012Lou Lambert, red herringPhilip Spelman, tête à têteTom de Munk-Kermeer, luchtkasteel 2011Alessandra Rossi, comfort zoneJames Rogers, hokusai’s childMarcus Tatton, the ruin
2010David Horton, jarrett in londonMatthew Harding, centripetalMichael Le Grand, anaconda