The West Tamar Art Group’s Artentwine Sculpture Biennial is a celebration of sculpture, which is held in five vineyards throughout the Tamar Valley.

This year, for the first time the competition is open to sculptors from throughout Australia and the world.

Artentwine chairwoman Robyn Barnet said the committee had met nearly every month for the past two years in an effort to ensure the “best possible outcomes” for artists, partners, and the people of the West Tamar region. 

“The applicants that are going to present their work in October and November are all in the running for the Bell Bay Aluminium $5000 prize and the $20,000 West Tamar Council acquisitive prize,” Ms Barnet said.

Artentwine curator Patrick Stucszak said the competition was reworked this year to encourage more people to enter.

“The last couple of years, we’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of discussion and a lot of collaboration … to take Artentwine into the future,” Sutczak said.

“I think we’ve made some great leaps and bounds. It’s a long-term thing, we want to just grow, and grow, and grow.

“We’ve opened it up for the first time to national artists, and international artists as well.”

Sutczak said there were 40 finalists in the running, compared to just seven finalists in 2016.

Sutczak said 22 of the finalists were from Tasmania, six were from Victoria, four from NSW, six from Queensland, one from Sweden, and one from New Zealand.

Ms Barnet said out of the top-40 entries, this year 17 were sculptures by women.

“The quality of works look really fantastic,” Sutczak said.

“The judges are very, very happy. We’ve been talking with those guys for the past few months now, looking at how we can approach this, so it’s very exciting.

“We’re very pleased, very excited, and congratulations to all involved.”

Judges for this year’s competition are former director and chief executive of the Heidi Museum of Modern Art Natasha Cica, Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania director Michael Edwards, and Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery curator of visual art and design Ashleigh Whatling.

Ms Barnet said the goal now was to bring visitors to the Tamar Valley through art, food, wine, and music events to be held as part of the competition.

“The next stage of the project will be asking our partners … to bring tourists, our patrons, [and] food and wine lovers to the Tamar Valley in spring,” she said.

A full list of finalists can be found on the Artentwine website.

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