Supporting the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA)

How to support the JADA Touring exhibition.

What's the best way of showing your support for the JADA?

Since 1988, the Friends of Grafton Gallery (FoGG) have been the proud sponsors of the JADA, raising funds towards the first prize for each biennial award.

How to support

The best way to show your support is by becoming a member for as little as $30 per year, visit https://galleryfriends.com.au/ for further information, or simply download and complete a membership form to renew your membership or to become a friend. 

The FoGG are currently fundraising for the 2024 JADA and have implemented an opportunity to accept donations electronically and securely through a tap point, visit here to make your donation. 

The Friends of Grafton Gallery is a registered charity has deductible gift recipient status (DGR) with the ATO (ABN 48 180 020 645), with gifts of over $2 being tax deductible.

History of the JADA

The JADA has enabled the Gallery to gather a unique and impressive collection of contemporary Australian drawing. Since the establishment of the drawing acquisition prize in 1988, there have been well over one hundred works acquired into the collection from leading, established, and emerging Australian artists.

The unique, and impressive JADA collection exemplifies the developments and changing parameters of contemporary drawing since 1988. This collection explores the way that drawing resonates as a contemporary medium, demonstrating the relevance and strength of drawing, with the works offering a varied, and extensive overview of drawing, ranging from highly resolved articulate works to spontaneous expressive works that are mostly on paper.

In 1988 the Jacaranda Art Exhibition Prize was presented for the first time with the support of the Jacaranda Art Society, as a specialised acquisitive Australian drawing prize. The inaugural Director of the Gallery, Julian Faigan, made the decision to change the dynamics of the Jacaranda Society Art Prize from a various medium, open prize with four sections, to a specific award for drawing. This decision recognised the need for regional galleries to specialise in their collections to allow for the development of identity, to reflect regional and historical difference, to encourage diversity and to reduce competition with other public institutions.

In 1994 the Jacaranda Art Society exhibition became the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) and formed into the structure it still holds today; a biennial award with entries selected by a panel of art professionals for exhibition, from which the judge selects the acquisitive first prize.

The Friends of the Gallery became the sole sponsors of a $5,000 first prize in 1998, with the gallery JADA fund enabling $5,000 of further acquisitions for each award. Over the years the prize value has increased to its current value of $35,000 for the winner, with a further $10,000 allocated to acquire works as recommended by the judge.

Since 1998 the JADA Exhibition has toured throughout Eastern Australia, travelling to several regional and metropolitan galleries for up to 18 months. The award seeks to encourage and promote innovation and excellence and plays a vital role in fostering Australian drawing practice while providing artists with a unique opportunity to explore the complexity of drawing.

By allowing this award to be the major focus of the gallery’s acquisition policy, the collection has attractively developed through the tastes, opinions and approaches of the various judges into a collection that is compelling, thought provoking, innovative, exuberant, and diverse.

Image credit: Celia Morgan exits and entries, 2020 (detail), 2020 JADA finalist. Image courtesy of the artist.

 

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