$1 million grant from the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust has been announced to establish a far-reaching new Indigenous arts residency program in perpetuity at the University of Melbourne.

Created to enable a Victorian Aboriginal artist to undertake a significant project of their choice every year, the residency will build an alumni of Victorian Indigenous artists who have been provided with a unique opportunity to explore ideas, enhance skills and develop new iterations of Indigenous cultural practice.

Named in honour of Darvell M Hutchinson AM, who steered HMSTrust for a remarkable 50 years and last month retired as Chairman, the Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship (HIF) will be open to Victorian Indigenous artists. Each residency will last for one year, with a cash grant of $40,000 plus up to $5000 for materials (indexed for inflation).

It will offer each artist appropriate support from a range of specialist resources at the University of Melbourne, comprising at the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts  and the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC). This includes the option of enrolment in the Specialist Certificate in Cross-Cultural Conservation and Heritage with progression to a Master’s program, without any formal education prerequisites.

The HIF was announced to a gathering of 500 of Mr Hutchinson’s peers at the biennial conference of Philanthropy Australia in Melbourne on Tuesday September 2.

The residency was developed with input from leading arts advisors and academics including Indigenous soprano and educator, Deborah Cheetham, Head of the Wilin Centre; Robyn Sloggett, Director of the CCMC and Dr Gerard Vaughan, former Director of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Ms Cheetham commented that: “As a Yorta Yorta artist, I know that the visual and performing arts are the most powerful way by which we may know the world and give meaning to everything in it.  For more than one thousand generations the Indigenous people of this land have passed on all knowledge of geography, the sciences, medicine and humanity through the visual and performing arts. For the Indigenous people of this land, the arts have never been a luxury – rather a necessity.

“In the naming of this award and in its purpose, the Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship acknowledges the true value of longevity.”

The HIF will be open to Indigenous arts practitioners who identify with at least one of the 11 language families of Victoria. They must have a successful record of at least three years as an Indigenous arts practitioner and at least three years’ relevant experience in a related industry. A degree in a relevant discipline is desirable but not mandatory.

The selection process will be managed by an expert panel comprising representatives of the Wilin Centre and CCMC, the curator of Indigenous art from a major Victorian gallery, an arts leader with relevant experience (in 2014 this will be Dr Gerard Vaughan), and a representative of HMSTrust (as observer).

Read more:   Media Release Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship Announcement 2 September 2014