This fourth annual celebration of creative talent will run over five days from Wednesday, 8 January, 2025.

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The event is sponsored by local businesses, supported by local artists and run by the Bonny Hills Progress Association (BHPA).

The Prize was set up to promote art in Bonny Hills with its success reflected in the hundreds of high quality submissions it has received each year from artists across the Mid North Coast.

Around 1000 visitors are expected to attend the exhibition with scores of enthusiastic young people to benefit from the tutorials run by local artists.

BHPA President Paul Poleweski, said he is expecting sold-out registrations for the very popular “Children as Artists Workshops”, which were introduced two years ago for three to twelve year olds.

A new youth workshop for thirteen to eighteen year olds is also being introduced this year under the supervision of local artists.

Virginia Cox and Sue Poleweski Jones, two of the workshops’ organisers and tutors, describe these sessions as a “thrill to present”.

St Agnes Catholic Parish has supported the BHPA in staging the events since the first Art Prize in 2022.

It has donated space for the exhibition in the beautiful surrounds of the Francis Retreat in Bonny Hills.

The judge of the 2025 Art Prize is Gillean Shaw, the Curator of the University of Newcastle Art Galleries.

Ms Shaw manages two galleries, a museum and a collection of 3500 works.

Organisers say they are delighted to be hosting “someone of such accomplishment and experience”.

Artists can obtain more information and contact details by going to the Progress Association’s website at www.bonnyhills.org.au.

By Sue STEPHENSON and John DRINAN