AN 18-year-old student at St Mary MacKillop Catholic College has won the $2000 Rotary Club of Tuggeranong Acquisitive Art Award. ACT Shadow Minister for the Arts, Brendan Smyth made the announcement.

Bree Sturgess won the award for her unusual photographic and multimedia work, “Haunted by Humans.”

The CEO of Tuggeranong Arts Centre which hosts the prize, Rauny Worm, described the winning work as “timeless”, commented that Sturgess’s unusual technique of transferring a photograph to wood and then treating the image “portrays as much to the viewer as the photograph itself.”

The Tuggeranong Rotary Youth Arts Award is now its 21st year and has a solid track record of giving artists aged 15 to 25 a head start in the arts. This year 45 works were submitted across several media.

The judges, Annika Harding of ANCA Gallery, Bernie Slater from CIT and ACT Children and Young People Commissioner, Alasdair Roy, described the exhibition as “varied and intriguing,” each of the works demonstrating the distinct style of the young artists.

At the launch this evening. It was also announced that the $500 Academy of Interactive Entertainment New Media Award has gone to xxx, the $500-valued CIT Centre for Creative Industries Award (tuition fees in any course offered) has gone to XXX and the PhotoAccess Young Photographers Award pf $250 towards membership/course has gone to XXX.

The Tuggeranong Rotary Youth Arts Award and Exhibition, at Tuggeranong Arts Centre , until June 30, 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday.