ArtStart Grant

Sydney College of the Arts graduate, Claude Jones, has been awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Grant of $9,675 to fund a marketing strategy for the New Year. The ArtStart grant, awarded in December 2009, will help raise Jones profile, increase gallery and media attention and sales throughout 2010.

Libby Christie, Executive Director of Arts Funding at the Australia Council for the Arts said, “ArtStart offers a boost and encouragement to arts graduates, across all art forms, when they are making the transition from arts training to professional practice. The 53 successful ArtStart recipients are a great example of the innovation, tenacity and creativity needed to carve out a sustainable career in the arts. The Australia Council is excited about kick starting the careers of our next generation of artists.”

Jones completed her Master of Visual Arts at SCA in early 2007. Since then she has been exhibiting extensively in group shows both nationally and internationally and has held regular annual solo exhibitions in Sydney. 2009 was a busy year for the Jones - her work featured on the cover of Australian Art Review (February to April edition), she exhibited in The Studio at Art Melbourne in April and was awarded the Janet Holmes a Court Artists Grant through The National Association for the Visual Arts to support a solo exhibition in September..

Jones creates unique and engaging artworks that use humour and irony to explore the complexity of our relationship with animals. Jones explains, "My work focuses on the creation of peculiar biologies - hybrid and mutant creatures that reflect our complex interconnectedness with other living species. I am interested in how our relationship with nature is changing in the face of biotechnological development on the one hand and increasing environmental awareness on the other."

Jones is represented by Artereal Gallery in Sydney and by Edwina Corlette Gallery in Brisbane.

The Australia Council for the Arts will deliver an informal presentation at Frazer Studios in Chippendale at 1pm on Wednesday 20 January, Claude Jones will be one of 5 grant recipients invited to discuss their application at this event.

Image: Claude Jones, Purple Rabeer, 2009, screenprint, 60 x 60cm.