SYDNEY.- Sculpture by the Sea announced that Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, which faced the prospect of never happening again, will return to the sandy white shores of Cottesloe Beach in March 2020 thanks to The Bendat Family Foundation becoming the Perth Exhibition Patrons and 13 Angel Donors making substantial donations.
Following the March announcement that this would be the last year of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe unless substantial new corporate, government or philanthropic funds were raised by the end of June, exhibition organisers were approached by The Bendat Family Foundation with an offer to help.
After several very friendly and supportive conversations The Bendat Family Foundation agreed to become the Perth Exhibition Patrons for three years providing the largest annual philanthropic donation to date for the Cottesloe exhibition, which includes a significant new source of funding for WA sculptors.
The Bendat Family Foundation got the fundraising drive off to a solid start and in the last four months they have been joined by 13 Angel Donors most of whom donated $25,000 towards the next two year’s exhibitions with several increasing their existing support. Most of the Angel Donors have also donated to reduce the significant deficit of last March’s exhibition enjoyed by 210,000 visitors.
The people and foundations that have made the continuation of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe possible are:
Perth Exhibition Patrons
• The Bendat Family Foundation
The Angel Donors
• Linda & John Bond
• Julienne Penny & Gavin Bunning AM
• Katrina & Craig Burton,
• Nicola Forrest AO & Andrew Forrest AO, through the Minderoo Foundation
• Kerry Harmanis
• Cate & Mark Hohnen
• Mimi & Willy Packer
• Tim Roberts
• Chris Rowe
• Lorraine & Graham Rowley
• Spinifex TrustSusan & Ian Trahar
• Anonymous
The not-for-profit organisation, which announced a substantial deficit for the 2019 Perth exhibition, has warned that despite The Bendat Family Foundation and the Angel Donors support, additional corporate and government funding is essential to ensure Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe achieves budget this year and is sustainable beyond 2020.
The Founding Director of Sculpture by the Sea, David Handley elaborated, “While we still have a long way to go with our fundraising efforts it is important that while we raise funds to stage the exhibition as a free event that we raise funds for the artists. Seventeen artists in this year’s show did not receive a brass razoo towards their costs.”
Each year from 2020 – 2022, three WA artists will each receive $10,000 dollars towards their costs of exhibiting at Cottesloe in 2020 as The Bendat Family Foundation WA Invited Artists.
The Chairman Dr Jack Bendat AM and the Board of the Bendat Family Foundation said, “Sculpture by the Sea is an incredibly important cultural experience for the Western Australian community and visitors to Perth. It would be a great shame for it not to continue, which is why we’re thrilled to be involved in providing financial support for its return.”
“Perth has embraced Sculpture by the Sea like no other city,” continued Handley. “The exhibition not only has a significant artistic, cultural, education, tourism and economic impact on Perth and WA but it brings great joy to its people and the thousands who travel from interstate and overseas each year to visit the exhibition.
“We’re deeply grateful to The Bendat Family Foundation and the Angel Donors for their generous support, which enables us to deliver the exhibition for another year and to support the development of Perth artists.”
“It is important to stress at this time that we do still require more substantial funding from the Government and corporate sponsorship for 2020 and to keep the Cottesloe exhibition sustainable for future years.”
The organisers of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe would like to thank their long standing sponsors and government partners for continuing to support the exhibition and their understanding over the past months, including Founding Sponsor Alcoa, Tourism WA, the Packer Family and Crown Resorts Foundations, EY, Edith Cowan University, the Australia Council for the Arts and Lotterywest.
Next year will mark the 16th anniversary of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, which is Perth’s largest free to the public event. The exhibition attracts an estimated 200,000 visitors, including 6,000 school children, to explore the art and create Perth’s own version of the Italian passeggiata with thousands of people wandering among the sculptures on Cottesloe Beach at sunset each evening.
Sculpture by the Sea can also reveal that the thousands of interstate and international visitors who come to Perth for the specific purpose of visiting Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2019 contributed $6.8 million in direct visitor spending to the State economy earlier this year. The results come from an economic impact study conducted by BIS Oxford Economics funded by the Minderoo Foundation, which also found that people who visited the exhibition who live outside the Cottesloe area (some 175,000 people) contributed $5.3 million in direct visitor spending on food and beverages in Cottesloe. It is hoped more of these Cottesloe businesses will join the Cottesloe Beach Hotel to contribute in a meaningful way towards the funds still to be found for the 2020 exhibition.
Sculpture by the Sea has opened the call for submissions from artists for Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2020. The deadline for submissions is Thursday 15 August by post or Monday 19 August for online submissions. Exhibition organisers apologise for reducing by three weeks the usual amount of time for artists to conceive their artworks while the necessary funds were raised.
Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe will return from 6 - 23 March 2020.
