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The �����Ʊ School of Art & Design deeply regrets the decision taken by the Board of Creative Australia to cancel the artistic team chosen for the 2026 Venice Biennale. We stand by our alumnus Khaled Sabsabi and note that the Board has found his work to be reflective of “the diversity and plurality of Australia’s rich culture, and will spark meaningful conversations with audiences around the world.” (Creative Australia’s CEO Adrian Collette). This remains the case regardless of the political considerations behind this decision.

In the aftermath of this decision, we think it is important to remind everyone that Khaled is a community minded artist who has worked in detention centres, schools, prisons, refugee camps, hospitals and youth centres in Australia and overseas and has produced many thousands of images in his 35 year career. This vast body of work has been eclipsed in recent media coverage by an obsessive focus on just one or two of these images.

We wish the Board all the very best in managing the current political sensitivities now intruding on their decision making such that ‘risk management’ appears to be taking priority over the board’s stated values which include: ‘Diversity: embracing difference’ and ‘Leadership: advocate and empower’.

- Professor Edward Scheer, Head of School | 14 February 2025

_{^{Photograph by Anna Kucera}}

The Annual 2024 is the largest showcase of graduate contemporary art and design in Australia.

Works from the next generation of artists, designers, and makers are on display at Australia's biggest graduate art and design showcase.

This year, 187 of the best emerging creative practitioners in the country will display new work across the �����Ʊ Paddington campus and online, ranging interdisciplinary practices across 3D visualisation, animation, ceramics, drawing, experience design, furniture, graphics, installation, interaction design, jewellery, moving image, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, visual effects, and more.

_{^{Image credit: Gosha Heldtz, true blue (2024).}}

Congratulations to alum and academic Katy B Plummer, who won the major prize at the 2024 Fisher’s Ghost Art Awards.  

Katy received the $50,000 Open Award for Margaret and The Grey Mare. The work is described as “an opera, a fever dream about an opera and an immersive video installation, made in collaboration with a chatbot coded to act as a channel to an ancient Celtic land spirit”.

The winning work will be on display at Campbelltown Arts Centre until 6 December.

_{^{Photograph by Nicholas Smith}}