Sculpture by the Sea returns to Sydney after 3 years
Image: Deborah Halpern, The Face, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2018. Photo Gareth Carr
By LINA NAFIE
This year, the beginning of the summer in Sydney will be marked by the return of one of Australia’s leading cultural events: Sculpture by the Sea. After three years, this free open-air exhibition along the Bondi to Tamarama walk is coming back with more than 100 sculptures and artworks from Australian and international artists.
The exhibition will feature work by artists such as Stephen King, Andrew Townsend, Jina Lee and Marina DeBris, recipients of the 2020 and the 2021 Helen Lempriere Scholarship; Michael Le Grand and Transfield guest artists Sally Kidall, Richard Goodwin and Juan Pablo Pinto & Christian Rojas.
Sculpture by the Sea, which has previously attracted over 450,000 visitors will be once again expect to welcome a large audience. Among them, 2000 school students participating in the Schools Education Program from institutions all around Sydney. The exhibition will also be accessible to everyone thanks to the Access and Inclusion Program which has been offering free tours for people with disability since 2009.
This year’s exhibition will also allow visitors for the first time to explore the spectacle on their phones using the free Sculpture by the Sea App. Users will be able to navigate the numerous sculptures while discovering details about the artworks and artists. Users will also be able to leave an unlimited number of “likes” on artists’ work which will allow the hosts to create a list of the most liked pieces of art, enhancing their chances of being voted for in the Allens People’s Choice Award.
Sculpture by the Sea began as a humble exhibition in 1997 at Bondi to Tamarama, with artists voluntarily presenting their work. The exhibition kept expanding and today is hosted in more than 50 locations, including four overseas.
On the website, founder, David Handley, describes his 25 year experience with the ever-growing exhibition, and the struggle to keep it free by relying on sponsors and volunteers:
“In the exhibition’s first year, 1997 (and still far from resolved now) our biggest problem was financing the show. Run from my lounge room and staffed entirely by volunteers, none of whom knew each other beforehand, the first exhibition started with a bank account of $100.”
Each year, costs increase and funding becomes more challenging, which is why for the first time in Sydney, this year, Sculpture by the Sea will be asking visitors to consider making volunteer donations of $5 ( or $10 for families) to the project in the hope that it will help finance future exhibitions just like it did in Perth in the previous years.
