Hadley’s Art Prize open for entries in $100,000 landscape award as hotel clocks up huge milestone

Entries have now opened for the $100,000 Hadley’s Art Prize. It’s the seventh year the prize has been on offer – as the grand old dame of an establishment clocks up a huge milestone.

Hadley's Orient Hotel turns 190 this year. Picture: Chris Kidd

This year, the grand old dame of a hotel that sits on Murray Street will clock up 190 years of life.

But that is not the only reason Hadley’s Orient Hotel is celebrating in 2024, with its $100,000 art prize on offer for the seventh year running.

Entries for this year’s richest landscape prize in the country opened on Monday, with prize curator Amy Jackett noting it was “a particular special year”, noting the hotel’s long history of supporting the arts.

“The hotel walls have shared some incredible artwork over the years, particularly landscape paintings,” Dr Jackett said.

“Some of the early landlords in the nineteenth century were art collectors and the hotel hosted major exhibitions in the early twentieth century.”

Hundreds of entries are expected for the annual prize, which has been held since 2017 and which is awarded to an artwork deemed by the judges to the best portrayal of Australia’s landscape.

Entries are open for the 2024 Hadley’s Art Prize. Curator Amy Jackett and Tasmanian judge Neil Haddon with the 2023 Peoples Choice Winner: Joshua Andree’s Once Still Water (Requiem for a Lake). Picture: Chris Kidd

This year’s judging panel will include Tasmanian artist Neil Haddon, who won the prize in 2018, plus Tina Baum, National Gallery of Australia curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art curator, and Jane Devery, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia senior curator of exhibitions.

Dr Haddon said the prize not only elevated individual artists, but also played “a vital role in promoting and preserving myriad views about place and relationship with the Australian landscape”.

In addition to the major prize, a one-month studio residency is up for grabs as well as honourable mentions, a Packing Room Prize and The Mercury People’s Choice Award.

Entries close March 15, with the winner announced on August 2.

More information can be found at www.hadleysartprize.com.au

Follow @ambervwilson