Photo Gallery: Clancy Religious Art Prize Opening Night 2022
Clancy Religious Art Prize, a free exhibition featuring works by students from across Sydney Archdiocese, is now showing at Strathfield’s McGlade Gallery.
Clancy Prize winner: ‘She healed the wood, like she’s healed herself’
Meet Year 12 student Charlotte McCaughan, the 2021 Clancy Prize Executive Director’s Award winner.
Her Clancy Prize entry – a creative sculpture fashioned from termite-damaged Bunya Pine wood – features stars inspired from the Southern Cross Catholic College Burwood emblem emblazoned on her school uniform.
Titled Tableland of Faith and Time, it tells her story of redemptive healing following a life-altering head injury.
“Charlotte healed the wood, like she’s healed herself; her story brought me to tears” – Clancy Prize coordinator, Ivanka Rancic
Charlotte’s artwork, Tableland of Faith and Time. Photo: Kitty Beale
“In 2018 I got knocked out and then diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome (PCS),” Charlotte said with reference to PCS, a condition typically associated with a head injury.
Most people with post-concussion syndrome are able to recover with rest and by minimising stress. In Charlotte’s case, she experienced severe anxiety and was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), she said.
“I lost a lot of my memory and had multiple nervous breakdowns,” Charlotte said.
“My injury made me question my faith in God and if it were not for the teachers and family members who supported my academic work and social life, I would not be sharing my experiences with the world around me.”
Charlotte is pictured with Sydney Catholic Schools’ Executive Director, Tony Farley. Photo: Kitty Beale
A self-confessed unlikely artist, Charlotte is currently studying construction at Southern Cross Catholic College Burwood and hopes to one day work in remote communities helping make furniture around which people can come …
Revealed: Clancy Prize winners
Ignite your artistic side and take a tour of McGlade Gallery, where you will discover 68 mesmerising spiritual artworks by talented Sydney Catholic secondary students.
Sculptures, paintings, photographs and much more form part of the 2021 Clancy Religious Art Prize and Exhibition.
Sixty-eight individual and collaborative works were last year entered into the Sydney Archdiocesan competition and 14 picked up prizes on Friday 21 May.
The artworks illustrate students’ understanding of this year’s exhibition theme: ‘Celebrating 200 Years of Catholic Education in Australia’.
“I try to buy as much student work as I can; it’s good for me and for them” – Clancy Prize judge, Dr Victoria Carruthers
ACU School of Education Award winner: St Ursula’s College Kingsgrove alumna, Anna Giannini, with her artwork Intricacy. “During 2020 we were isolated and had to find new ways to ‘look up’,” said Anna, who is now studying fashion. “My artworks are a symbolic and spiritual representation of this.”
St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney alumnus, Martino Kanasugi, with his work Don’t Blink (keep watching). “The sensitive use of a translucent Mickey, whispering subliminal messages, alludes to the sinister nature of the ‘screen’,” said Martino, who is now studying Bachelor of Design at UNSW.
ABOUT THE CLANCY PRIZE
The annual Clancy Prize exhibition is a celebration of our students’ creativity and spirituality, expressed through visual arts, inspired by Cardinal Edward Clancy.
This is the 22nd year of the competition.
Taking part is a very practical way for students to mark and celebrate the bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia and, most importantly, it provides an opportunity for them to …
