About the Prize
Presented by Hadley’s Orient Hotel, the Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart is an acquisitive Australian landscape prize, which offers $100,000 to the winning entry.
Hadley’s Orient Hotel has a long history with art starting with art-loving landlords in the late 1800s. The Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart contributes to the art community, celebrates excellence in contemporary landscape art, promotes cultural tourism in Tasmania, and restores art to the historic walls of Hadley’s Orient Hotel through a landscape prize like Howard Hadley won in 1895. Click here to learn more about the philanthropists behind the Hadley’s Art Prize.
Judged by a panel of art specialists, the prize is open to Australian artists over the age of eighteen working in two-dimensional media. Artists at all career stages are invited to enter.
Other Prizes
$1000 framing voucher prize presented by Wagner Framemakers
$2500 People’s Choice Award presented by The Mercury Newspaper
One month residency prize presented by Hadley’s sister property, the Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, Salamanca Arts Centre and Artery.
$500 prize presented by the University of Tasmania for an Australian year 11/12 student.
$1000 worth of prizes for kindergarten - year 10 students presented by Artery.
How the Hadley’s Art Prize came about
Hadley’s Orient Hotel has a long history with art – from art collector landlords in the late 1800s to major exhibitions in the 1920s and ‘30s. Early landlord Howard Hadley won a landscape art prize in 1895, and embarked on painting lessons in Victoria before returning to Hobart to run the hotel after his father.
Current majority owners of Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Don Neil and Annette Reynolds dreamt up the idea on the 90th anniversary of the first solo exhibition held at Hadley’s Orient Hotel – a series of landscape paintings by John Eldershaw.
Don grew up on a farm in rural Victoria and started working in a shoe factory, cutting leather patterns. When his manager had a sporting injury, Don was promoted from the factory floor and told to buy a hat for his first trip interstate. That trip was to Hobart to sell shoes in one of the rooms at Hadley’s. Many years later, after much success in the shoe business, Don purchased Hadley’s Orient Hotel from receivers and employed an expert team to sensitively restore the historic hotel to the special place he remembered.
For Don Neil, the Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart is about giving back to the art community (as artists and art-loving tourists have been flocking to Hobart and filling local hotels ever since the opening of MONA), bringing art back to the historic walls of Hadley’s Orient Hotel though a landscape prize like Howard Hadley won, and celebrating the work of contemporary Australian landscape artists.
The prize exposes artists to new audiences and enables emerging artists to be shown alongside established artists. The Hadley’s Art Prize has an education resource and a public program of exhibition events.
The Hadley’s Art Prize is an acquisitive award. The collection of winning artworks are displayed at Hadley’s Orient Hotel.
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