In 2016, Christchurch-based artist Miranda Parkes became the 49th recipient of Aotearoa New Zealand's longest-standing and most prestigious contemporary art award, the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in Dunedin, a 12 month artist's residency with a studio and the salary of a full-time university lecturer.
Parkes was in the best of company. Think of the name of the country's most distinguished contemporary artists and it is likely that they are part of the Fellowship's 52 years of history: Ralph Hotere, Michael Smither, Gretchen Albrecht and Shane Cotton, to name only a few.
Her success in 2016 was the third time she had applied and on each occasion filling out the application form represented its own challenges. She maintains that the application "has to be quite creative because you have to think about what you are going to do in the future and it is really hard to do that with painting".
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