About the Lace Award

The 2011 Powerhouse Museum International Lace Award was launched to present a provocative challenge to conventional notions of lace, to inspire new design applications of lace and to attract a diversity of ideas from many global cultures. It called on artists and designers from a broad range of creative disciplines to create ‘an openwork structure whose pattern of spaces is as important as the solid areas’.

Earlier versions of the Powerhouse International Lace Award, held in 1997 and 2001, invited designs for ‘openwork fabrics’. The 2011 award broadens the scope to ‘openwork structures’, making the award accessible to a wider range of media as well as to designs for the built environment. The inclusion of digital multimedia adds even greater breadth to the entries received.

Entrants submitted an artist’s statement, design proposal, curriculum vitae and images of previous work for judging. The judging panel comprises:

• architect Chris Bosse, Partner/Director, Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, Sydney
• fashion designer, Akira Isogawa, Sydney
• lace and fashion historian Anne Kraatz, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris
• Peter McNeil, Professor of Design History, University of Technology, Sydney
• lace maker, author and historian Rosemary Shepherd OAM, Sydney
• curator Lindie Ward, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

After considering 700 submissions from 33 countries, the judges chose 130 works to be exhibited at the Powerhouse Museum in 2011. Finalists then had eight months to complete their work. The judging criteria are:

• visual impact
• originality and creativity
• innovation in design, materials or techniques
• skill in execution
• a conceptual interpretation of place

Designer Akira Isogawa joins the panel for the final round of judging. A prize of A$20,000 is awarded to the overall winner at the launch of the exhibition and opening of Sydney Design 2011. Five A$4,000 prizes are awarded to winners in the following categories:

• fashion and accessories
• traditional techniques
• built environment
• digital multimedia
• student work

A people’s choice prize will be awarded at the close of the exhibition.

Lace award media release