PRIZE REVIEW: Shirley Hannan National Portrait 2024

What was the rating?  

Following discussions with the organisers and a revision of the competition’s terms and conditions, Arts Law has awarded the competition 3.5 out of 5 stars.   

How artist-friendly is this competition? 

Overall, the competition’s terms are reasonably artist-friendly, but could benefit from some improvements.   

A single prize of $50,000 is awarded to the winner of Best Portrait in this non-acquisitive competition (but see below regarding collection of artworks). However, the finalists are offered good financial and profile-raising opportunities for entrants because although artworks are not for sale through the South East Contemporary Art Gallery (SECCA), they will connect interested parties with the artist . 

The finalists who will compete for the Best Portrait prize will be chosen by a selection committee. Both the judge and the selection committee will be appointed by the Gallery Director. It is not ideal for transparency that the selection committee and the judge are not selected and identified in the terms and conditions.    

A non-refundable $55 entry fee is required per artwork. Artists can submit as many qualifying entries as they like but must pay the entry fee for each one. Despite this, only one work per artist will be eligible for selection for the final exhibition. 

The competition does not explicitly exclude artworks created with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI). However, we consider that the requirements that all work must be the original work of the artist and that the artist must be a permanent resident of Australia mean that artwork created using Gen AI will not meet the competition criteria.   

How do the copyright terms stack up? 

What is copyright?

Copyright is a bundle of rights that protect literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works (as well as films and sound recordings). These rights allow the owner of copyright to control the ways that a work is used. If you want to learn more, you can read Arts Law’s Information Sheet on Copyright here.

• The artwork that wins will not become the property of SECCA nor will the copyright in the artwork. For all finalists, including the winner, there are no express terms about copyright remaining with the entrant, but it is implied. 

• Artists should consider that by entering they grant SECCA the right to document artworks for media purposes or for its own photographic records.  It would be beneficial for SECCA to specify how the artwork will be used for media purposes, as this is capable of quite broad interpretation (probably intentionally so). This is because, if media purpose means that the artwork is to be displayed online and or virtually it raises the risk of third-party copyright infringement due to the difficulty in tracking access and viewership online. 

• While the reservation of rights is limited, ideally, it should include an end date, with a duration only as long as necessary for such promotions, especially since no licence fee is paid. 

• While the terms and conditions are not explicit about the public photographing the finalist’s artwork, the gallery itself allows entrants to take photographs.  This suggests that by submitting an entry you would be impliedly consenting to this term.  

Does the competition respect moral rights? 

What are moral rights?

Creators have moral rights when their work is used (i) to attribution, (ii) against false attribution, and (iii) to integrity, which means not having their work treated in a derogatory way. For more information, you can read Arts Law’s Information Sheet on Moral Rights here.

The terms do not expressly deal with moral rights for their artworks. As a consequence the protection afforded to  moral rights under the Copyright Act continues to apply.  This means that the artist must be credited and their name displayed in a reasonably prominent place wherever the artwork is shown.  It also means that the artwork cannot be adapted or modified in any way which could be said to damage the artist’s reputation. 

What about Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP)?   

What is ICIP?

ICIP is a broad term that covers all of the rights that Indigenous people have, and want to have, to protect their traditional arts and culture (including writing, music, performances, paintings, languages, sacred sites, stories passed down orally, and other records of heritage). If you want to learn more, you can read Arts Law’s Information Sheet on ICIP here.

Following a discussion with Arts Law, we are pleased to see that a new term dealing with ICIP has been included. This requires the artist to guarantee that they have secured informed consent (and provide evidence of it if requested) from the community custodians to allow the use of the ICIP material and permit SECCA to display and reproduce the work as specified in the entry conditions. Further, the term requires the artist to inform SECCA of any ICIP requirements that may affect the attribution, display or reproduction of the works. This will enable SECCA to accompany the display of the artwork with an appropriate ICIP notice which should acknowledge the inclusion of traditional ritual knowledge of a community, the consent from the custodians of that community, and that dealing with any part of the work for any purpose that has not been authorised by the custodians is a serious breach of the customary laws of that community, and contact details for enquiries regarding permitted uses of the work.   

What about transport, risk and insurance for the artworks?   

Finalists (not SECCA) are responsible for organising the transportation of their artwork to and from the gallery at their own expense, and may not collect their artwork before the end of the exhibition. The collection can only occur on 3 days in February between 10am and 4pm which is a very limited time for the entrants to travel to Bega to collect their artwork.  However, if the finalists cannot meet the collection timeframe due to special circumstances, then they can contact SECCA who will do their best to try to assist. We are pleased to see that the terms have been amended to provide some flexibility for the collection of artworks. The finalists should be advised of this change, as the original short timeframe for artwork collection may have prevented some artists from participating in the competition.  

SECCA has insurance for the artworks while in SECCA’s care between the arrival and departure from SECCA, but not during transit, which is the responsibility of the artist. 

Other issues  

• The entry must be realistic depiction of a particular living person, with the subject known to the artist and aware of the artist’s intention. Finalists may be asked to supply sitter contact details “for marketing purposes”.  We anticipate that if sitter contact details could not be supplied then this may be a disqualifying event but that is not stated. 

• All entrants warrant that they have not infringed other people’s rights. This means that non-original works could result in: 

• The artwork being excluded from the competition.  

• The artist being required to refund prize money if the winning artwork was later found not to be original.  

• The artist potentially being liable to compensate SECCA for any actions that may be brought against it by a third party for infringement of copyright.   

• As all finalists’ artworks must remain for the duration of the exhibition and cannot be removed, entrants may wish to make copies of their artworks, such as digital scans, to ensure that they can continue to exercise their exclusive rights that subsist in their artworks. These include making copies, communicating, or publishing the artwork. 

What could they have done better?  

• Make the judging process more transparent.   

• More flexibility with return of artworks 

What is the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award about? 

The Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award is a prestigious Australian portrait prize for realistic portraiture of a living person who is known to the artist.  Those terms mean that the competition is focussed on this point in time rather than historical issues. 

About  Arts Law’s Prize Reviews

Arts Law regularly reviews the terms and conditions of competitions and rates them out of five stars. Our review looks broadly at the terms and conditions of a competition. In particular, we look closely at how a competition deals with an entrant’s copyright and moral rights, and consider this in light of the prize.  Entrants should always take into account the possible profile-raising which may result from being a finalist or winner.    

By accepting the terms and conditions of a competition, entrants should be aware that they may be entering a legally binding contract.    

For more information, see our free information sheet on competition conditions. Artists are welcome to contact Arts Law for legal advice on the terms of a competition. We also invite competition organisers to contact Arts Law for best practice assistance to make their terms and conditions fairer for artists.   

Further Information   

Please email us at [email protected] to tell us about any competitions or prizes you think we should check.    

See more about Arts Law’s campaign to improve competition terms and conditions in the Prizes and Competitions section.