For the first time in its 26 year history, the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Darwin will include on-line voting in its People’s Choice Awards.
In Darwin, people still have a couple of weeks to vote for their favourite entry at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) with voting set to close at 5pm next Sunday, 13 September 2009. The People’s Choice Award winner will then be announced the following week. But online voting continues until Sunday, 25 October 2009 – with the result of that vote announced on Wednesday, 28 October.
“Attendance at the exhibition has been very strong”, said Anna Malgozewicz, Director of MAGNT, “with more than 15,000 people visiting the Museum since the Telstra Art Awards opened on 14 August 2009.
But only 600 have voted – which may explain the extension into online voting. The WA Art Gallery pioneered online voting in its Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards last year. But in West there is a single People’s Choice result. In Darwin it seems there’ll be two competing winners!
In 2008 the People’s Choice Award went to Torres Strait Islander artist Alick Tipoti for his work on paper, Adhikuyam. An earlier People’s Choice was the local Darwin artist, Helen McCarthy.
Voters have to view the works online of course before making their choice. To do that, go to www.magnt.nt.gov.au/natsiaa
