ADFAS Gold Coast Young Arts
The Association of Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Societies (ADFAS) is the umbrella organization for the 33 Decorative & Fine Arts Societies located in major cities and regional areas throughout Australia.
One of the aims of ADFAS Societies is to inspire young people with enthusiasm for the arts and support their artistic studies and visual arts pursuits. Support is provided through a diverse range of Young Arts programmes.
The Young Arts Gold Coast Programme was launched in 2003 and has included a variety of functions, held each year, for members of the Society to attend in support of and for the promotion of Young Arts in the Gold Coast region.
Successful fundraising on an annual basis had allowed the $1000 Pamela Rainger Travel Stipend (PRTS) for young emerging artists aged eighteen to twenty-five years to be awarded. The Travel Stipend is named in honour of the late Pamela Rainger, the highly esteemed past Treasurer and a founding member of ADFAS Gold Coast.
This prize is to be used as a contribution to expenses incurred for travel to a city of the Recipient’s choice to tour relevant galleries and exhibitions. It is a condition of the PRTS that the Recipient report to ADFAS Members by giving a short illustrated talk on the opportunities and inspiration experienced during their visit.
Travel Stipends have a long history and are a wonderful way to support an emerging artist who may not have had the opportunity to undertake much art related travel. Both J.M.W. Turner (English Romantic Painter) and Claude Lorraine (one of the great French masters of the 17th century) were generously supported by sponsor of Travel Stipends during their early careers. Perhaps one of the most generous of all patrons was the Earl of Warwick who supported British water colourist John ‘Warwick’ Smith on an extended tour of Italy which lasted some 6 years from 1775 to 1781. Many of Smith’s beautiful paintings from this Italian period now hang with the Tate Collection, London.
The winner of the second Pamela Rainger Travel Stipend, in 2009 is Kiralie Cook with her artwork, Wish You Were Here.
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