The trust grants awards on a rolling three-year basis for Urban Sculpture, Literature and Music, in that order. The prizes are intended "to provide opportunities for Victorian writers, musicians and sculptors and recognise and reward excellence and talent, inspire creative development and enrich public life".
Urban Sculpture Recipients for the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture include: • 2005: OSW (Open Spatial Workshop), comprising Terri Bird, Bianca Hester, and Scott Mitchell, with then collaborator
Natasha Johns-Messenger, for
Groundings. OSW, founded in 2003, continues as a collaborative group comprising Bird, Hester, and Mitchell, producing works of many kinds: sculpture,
installation, curated events, publications, and video production. Bird is an artist, writer and academic at the Department of Fine Art at
Monash University; Hester is at the
University of Sydney; and Mitchell is connected to
RMIT. • 2008:
Alexander Knox, for
Maxims of Behaviour • 2011:
Bianca Hester, for
A World, Fully Accessible by No Living Being, in
Federation Square • 2014:
Geoff Robinson, for
15 locations / 15 minutes / 15 days • 2017:
Daniel von Sturmer, for
Electric Light (Facts/Figures/Federation Square) • 2020: Beth Arnold, Mikala Dwyer, Emily Floyd, Nicholas Mangan, Kathy Temin, and Field Theory; in an unprecedented move, the six finalists decided to share the prize, pool their winnings, and split the pool seven ways, giving a seventh of the winnings to an
Indigenous Australian community organisation, to highlight "the absence of First Nations voices and culturally diverse representation in the 2020 Prize" • 2023:
Maree Clarke, "for her recent experimental work in glass as well as the pivotal role she has played in the Victorian Indigenous art scene over the past three decades"
Literature Apart from the Melbourne Prize for Literature, which is given for a writer's body of work "which has made an outstanding contribution to Australian literature and to cultural and intellectual life", other literary prizes are also awarded as part of this event. The Civic Choice Award has been retained from the beginning, but other prize names have varied over the years, including: Best Writing Award (later including a
residency); and Readings Residency Award. In 2021, apart from the main prize, there was the Civic Choice Award, the Writer's Prize, and the Professional Development Award (created 2021). , the Civic Choice Award is given to the finalist who in both the Melbourne Prize for Literature and Writer's Prize received the highest number of votes from the public. •
2009:
Gerald Murnane •
2012:
Alex Miller •
2018:
Alison Lester •
2021:
Christos Tsiolkas •
2024:
Alexis Wright Civic Choice Award • 2006:
Henry von Doussa for
The Park Bench • 2009: Amra Pajalic for
The Good Daughter • 2012: Tony Birch for
Blood • 2015: Robyn Annear for
Places Without Poetry • 2018:
Louise Milligan for
Cardinal • 2021:
Maxine Beneba Clarke Best Writing Award (worth $30,000) • 2006:
Christos Tsiolkas for
Dead Europe • 2009:
Nam Le for
The Boat • 2012:
Craig Sherborne for
The Amateur Science of Love • 2015:
Andrea Goldsmith Recipients for the Melbourne Prize for Music include: • 2007:
Paul Grabowsky • 2010:
David Jones • 2013:
Brett Dean • 2016:
Kutcha Edwards • 2019:
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon • 2022:
Missy Higgins == References ==