Whitecliffe student nabs top honours at 2016 Eden Arts Art Schools Awards

Keeping up the tradition of winning awards annually at the Eden Arts Art Schools Awards, which brings together the four major art institutions in Central Auckland (Whitecliffe, AUT, Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, and Unitec), the 2016 instalment of the competition has seen Whitecliffe Photo Media student Yann-Ru Yang crowned the overall winner with her work titled The hyphen I live on. Yang was awarded a prize of $5000. Of the six times this competition has been held, this is the fifth time a Whitecliffe student has been recognized as the overall winner.

Yang’s tutor, Whitecliffe HOD Photo Media Becky Nunes, says of Yang’s work: “We are extremely happy to congratulate Yann-Ru as our fifth Eden Arts overall winner, and the first for the Photo Media Department. This is, by any standards, a remarkable achievement for us as an institution, and we believe that it demonstrates the continuing evolution of our programme as we continue to support and empower our students to make meaningful and engaging work across all lens-based media and platforms.”

As well as a Whitecliffe student being recognized as the overall winner, a Whitecliffe Fine Arts student, Anthony Mauinatu, who is in his fourth year of study, was one of three to receive a highly commended award, seeing him take away a prize of $1000.

Six undergraduate students are selected from each school as finalists, and every year the works of these students are blind judged by a panel of judges. The 2016 panel included Denys Watkins, Paeata Larkin, and Misal Adnan Yildiz.

The exhibition of the 2016 awards is hosted by Unitec Creative Studies and is open to the public at their Snowhite Gallery, as well as other gallery spaces located in Unitec Building One, Gate One, Carrington Road, Mount Albert. The exhibition is open until August 12.

Brought to you by Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design