The annual Clancy Religious Art Prize and Exhibition is open to all of Sydney Catholic Schools’ secondary students. It is a celebration of our students’ creativity and spirituality, expressed through visual arts, inspired by Cardinal Edward Clancy.
“Religion and art have been closely related from earliest times. Art has always been at the service of religion and religion at the service of art.
At a time when our society seems to be losing its civilising values, religious art is a powerful force in the service of humanity.”– Cardinal Edward Clancy, 2009
2023 Clancy Prize theme
The theme of the 2023 exhibition is: Pilgrimage, the inner and outer journey to seek transformation.
Student and teacher participation is encouraged in the Clancy Religious Art Prize and Exhibition. It is a wonderful way to showcase the creative talents of our young people, and for them to incorporate their gifts and talents as they come to know and love Christ through learning.
An exhibition will be held on Friday, 15 September 2023, where students will be presented prizes. The exhibition will be hosted by the Australian Catholic University (ACU) at McGlade Gallery, on ACU’s Strathfield campus. The quality of this contemporary exhibition space provides a fantastic backdrop for the display of our outstanding student work in the Visual Arts.
The creative arts are very important, as they enable us to encounter what is good, true and beautiful. In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis wrote: “Proclaiming Christ means showing that to believe in and to follow him is not only something right and true, but also something beautiful, capable of filling life with new splendor and profound joy, even in the midst of difficulties. Every expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus” (n.167).