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Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate: Winner & Shortlist 2009
Judges: Morag Fraser (convenor), Jim Carlton and Peter Mares
Winner
The winner of the 2009 Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate is:
- 'We Have Still Not Lived Long Enough'
Tom Griffiths (Inside Story)
Shortlist
| We Have Still Not Lived Long Enough - WINNERTom Griffiths
(Inside Story)
Written in the immediate aftermath of the 2009 Victorian fires (first published 16 February), this lucid, elegant essay responds intelligently and with compassion to the tragedy. In economical and engaging prose, Griffiths brings fine scholarship to bear on our human relationship to a very particular physical landscape, while also deftly locating the Victorian fires in their historical, environmental, climatic and geographic context. Ever dispassionate, Griffiths is able to draw clear policy lessons without acrimony or finger pointing. This is the essay all Australians should read if they wish to understand a particular catastrophe, learn about the precedents, and grasp both the particular circumstances of one Australian region and the general environmental responsibilities of all citizens. |
| The Henson CaseDavid Marr
(Text Publishing)
Marr has encapsulated an event that captured the national imagination and polarised public (and political) opinion. His essay has the pace and verve of fine reportage, retelling the Henson saga as it unfolded. It is also a savvy critical analysis of the case and its implications. While unashamedly on the side of the artist, Marr also provides fair treatment of the arguments advanced against Henson and his work. This was the twenty-first-century morality debate to rival the twentieth-century aesthetic (and often moral) debate over William Dobell’s portraiture, and its telling constitutes an important document in Australian cultural history. |
| Ratbags at the GatesHelen O’Neil
(Griffith Review)
Helen O'Neil deftly uses her personal family history to describe the arc of public arts funding in twentieth-century Australia. She acknowledges the legacy of that funding but also mounts a convincing argument that social and technological change has overtaken the established models of support. Her detailed call for a new approach to public sponsorship of the arts is one that artists will welcome, funders should scrutinise, and the public should read. They are, after all and every day, in offices, on screen, in concert halls, pubs, galleries and on iPods, the beneficiaries of the work of Australian artists. | |
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