Applications for the 2027 Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship are now open. Applications close on 10 January 2027.

APPLY HERE

Eligibility requirements

The terms of the scholarship have been set under Shirley Lahey’s Will.

The purpose of the scholarship is to support:

• Young or emerging Australian artists; and/or
• Young Australian art history students or graduates.

Applicants must be over 18 years, have recently undertaken visual arts studies or be art history graduates from a recognised tertiary institute and be Australian citizens or permanent residents. Applicants can be up to the age of 50 years, although emerging artists of any age are eligible.

Applicants must be able to

• Demonstrate a sound understanding of Australian art history or contemporary art practice.
• Show that a self-researched program of travel (in accordance with current Australian and Queensland Government travel advice) will further the development of their art practice or research.
• Show that their program of travel will make a contribution to an understanding of Australian art.

To apply, you must provide

• The names of two referees in a relevant field who may be contacted by the Gallery when assessing your application.
• A current CV (max. 2 pages).
• A detailed travel itinerary and budget for research to be conducted with scholarship funding (max. 3 pages).
• A personal statement specifically demonstrating how your travel itinerary and budget will further your practice or research and contribute to a broader understanding of Australian art (max. 1 page).
• The public URL of supporting material, in the form of one or a combination of the following formats: images (10 max.); video (10 minutes max.); writing samples (1500 words max.). Supporting material should be no larger than 200MB in total, saved on a shared drive such as Dropbox, Google Drive or YouSendlt. Ensure these are clearly titled. NB: Please contact the QAGOMA Foundation (details below) if you would like to provide supplementary material in another format or through another file-sharing platform.

The scholarship recipient is required to

• Expend monies received through the scholarship in the way outlined in the application unless prior written permission to make an alteration to the budget has been provided by the QAGOMA Foundation.
• Complete their travel within twelve (12) months of the announcement of the award.
• Provide an interim report within the first six (6) months of the announcement of the award. Guidelines will be provided electronically by the QAGOMA Foundation. Provide a detailed final report including proof of travel and full budget acquittal within two (2) months of completion. Guidelines will be provided electronically by the QAGOMA Foundation.
• Agree to acknowledge the support received through the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship in any media and publications resulting from projects undertaken during travel supported by scholarship funds.
• Agree to participate in media events and public programs, and contribute on media platforms relevant to the award.

The successful applicant will be asked to grant permission for their work to be reproduced in media, news and QAGOMA sites following the announcement of the winner they may also be asked to grant limited licence for reproduction of work resulting from projects undertaken during the scholarship for promotion of the Scholarship, of QAGOMA and/or the QAGOMA Foundation.

Applicants who are Queensland-based or who have resided in Queensland for an extended period of time are preferred. Scholarship monies will be paid to the successful applicant via bank transfer in Australian dollars. Successful scholarship recipients must have an Australian bank account with bank transfer facilities.

Claimable expenses

• All overland, sea and air travel tickets and associated costs
• Car rental and petrol
• Accommodation
• Travel insurance
• Living expenses, including meals: up to $100/day (maximum $500/week) - for incidental costs while travelling
• Artist and creative worker fees (NAVA payment standards)
• Research or art materials not exceeding $1000
• Childcare, carer and access costs
• Entry costs for museums, galleries, libraries, tertiary institutions or other places of art practice, research and/or learning
• Registrant fees for conferences or events relevant to your research of art practice and not constituting enrolment into courses of education

Non-claimable expenses

• Enrolment fees for courses of education
• Telephone and mobile data charges
• Personal items unrelated to research or art practice, such as clothing and souvenirs

Disclaimer

The Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship Trust is a charitable trust of which the Gallery’s Board is trustee. The Trust is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. The Scholarship is administered and coordinated by the QAGOMA Foundation under the oversight of the trustee.

No person will be entitled to claim compensation for loss from the Board of Trustees for any matter in connection with the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship.

Outcomes of the judging process are final, and no discussion or correspondence will be entered into about final award decisions or the judging process.

2025

Christopher Bassi

The 2025 Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship has been awarded to Meriam and Yupungathi artist Christopher Bassi, who will travel throughout the Torres Strait Islands and Europe to research and explore the interplay between traditional practices and modern influences in the Torres Strait.

2023

Shivanjani Lal

The 2023 Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship was awarded to Fijian-Australian artist and curator Shivanjani Lal, who travelled to Canberra, Queensland, Fiji and Bangladesh to research Australia's role in the history of Fijian indentured labour and undertook two printmaking residencies.

2021

Due to restrictions on international travel, the 2021 the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling scholarship was awarded as two $20,000 scholarships to support domestic travel that furthered the development of an art practice or research project.

Debbie Taylor‑Worley
'My project tells herstory of women on the colonial frontier, focussing on Gamilaraay country and the relationships between my Yinarr (Gamilaraay women) and Wadjin (white women) ancestors.'

Kink (Tim Riley Walsh, Courtney Coombs and Callum McGrath)
‘Kink is a working group investigating and bringing together the diverse and disparate histories of Australian LGBTQIA+ art. Kink is a growing collective and our current work involves nationwide community consultation, with the goal of developing new and open resources on queer Australian art history.’

2019

Valerie Keenan PhD

The 2019 Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship has was awarded to Valerie Keenan. Valerie managed Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre in Cardwell and ran the arts program for the renowned Girringun artists for 11 years. The Scholarship enabled Valerie to travel to Norway to expand her research into the work of Norwegian naturalist, explorer and photographer Carl Lumholtz, who spent a significant amount of time living with Indigenous communities in Far North Queensland in the 1880’s. Valerie’s research aimed to discover and review pictorial imagery gathered by Lumholtz, and consider its effect on 19th century views of Indigenous Australia, and how this information has impacted on contemporary descendants and communities of those people he researched.

2017

Sara Morawetz

In 2017, QAGOMA awarded the second Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship to interdisciplinary artist and PhD candidate Sara Morawetz. The $40,000 scholarship has given Morawetz the opportunity to design an extensive itinerary of travel that informed both her artistic research and her practice. The scholarship enabled Morawetz to conduct a program of independent research that included developing two site-specific, durational performances that took her to France, Spain and the United Kingdom.

2015

Matthew Perkins

The inaugural scholarship was awarded to video art researcher Matthew Perkins. With the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship, Matthew was able to investigate archives across Australia and visit institutions in Britain. Unearthing a range of articles, slides, photographs, tapes and ephemera, Matthew slowly pieced together a rich history of video art in Australia. During his scholarship, he also curated 'Resistance: Peter Kennedy' for the Australian Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide and completed a series of interviews with artists and curators that are instrumental to his research.