The FBi Radio Sydney Music, Art & Culture or SMAC awards has named Outpost Project as Best Art Event for 2011 at last Thursday’s (19 January) ceremony, held at The National Art School.
Activated by the collaboration between Sydney’s art hub, aMBUSH Gallery and the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust (SHFT), Outpost was the first event of its kind on this side of the globe.
Attracting over 86,000 visitors over five weeks from 4-Nov to 11-Dec 2011, the street art event proved a massive success and now claims the title to go with it.
“Outpost Project was a major milestone for street art in Australia. It brought our local world class artists and projects to the attention of Australian and international audiences and it will hopefully stimulate and encourage future projects,” said co-founder of aMBUSH Gallery Bill Dimas.
“The best part of this award is that it was voted as Best Art Event by the public which recognises our local creative scene and validates the hard work we have been putting into the street art space over the past 5 years.”
Housed at Sydney Harbour’s hot spot Cockatoo Island, Outpost transformed the gritty industrial spaces of the island into an explosion of urban art.
Kid Zoom (pictured) was one of numerous artists featured at the award-winning event.
Australian Heavy hitters, Kid Zoom (USA/Australia), Anthony Lister (USA/Australia), Beastman (Australia), Vexta (Australia) and the Everfresh Collective (Australia) were just a few of the 150 artists and creatives that illuminated the island.
Large-scale installations, live art creations, aerosol art, stencilling, paste-ups, sticker art, cup rocking, sculpture, murals and billboards, Outpost had it all. Known as one of Sydney’s most highly regarded cultural awards, the SMACS are an annual recognition of the artists, musos, venues, promoters, creators and culture makers who keep Sydney’s creative heart beating.
A mix of exhibitions, festivals, performances and parades were all up for the Best Art Event prize, nominees included Secret Wars, who also staged live art battles at Outpost.
This is the second major award for the Waterloo gallery – aMBUSH took out the national Australia Council Young and Emerging Artists Award at the 2011 Australia Business Arts Foundation Awards in Perth.
Next on the agenda for aMBUSH Gallery is the fourth volume of their award winning art event, Project 5.Dates, location and its brand new format will be announced soon.
