THE CAPITAL Arts Patrons Organisation’s top award, the 2017 CAPO Fellowship, has gone to multimedia artist Erica Seccombe, it was announced by patron Paul McDermott at the Canberra Museum and Gallery on Saturday.

It was also announced that the Rosalie Gascoigne Memorial Award has gone to Ham Darroch to help fund a residency at Artsource in in Fremantle,.

 The new $3000 Robert Foster Memorial Award, funded entirely through public donations, went to glass artist Lisa Cahill to assist in preparing for a solo exhibition in Santa Fe, USA.

The glamorous ‘masked soirée’ and auction saw artists, art lovers and Canberra business leaders surrounded by over 130 artworks donated by local artists.

The full list of winners is as follows: Megan Jackson, to create a new suite of large-scale works on paper and printed textiles; Hannah Gason, for the purchase of a glass kiln; Canberra Youth Theatre, to organise the Twilight Performance Festival for its younger members; Raquel Ormella,  to support new work for the 2017 Tamworth Textile Triennial; Tom Buckland, to mount a solo exhibition that explores the relationships between humans and insects, Maura Pierlot, to write and develop a series of dramatic monologues on mental illness; Millán Pintos-Lopez, for a new body of work; Jessica Haas, for production of an EP for Pheno; Phoebe Porter, for a new series of contemporary jewellery; sculptor Rosalind Lemoh for new work; Sanne Koelemij, to further her abstract painting; Rebecca Selleck for a series of interactive sculptures; Lydia Monzo and Rosanna Stevens to a debut single for their duo ‘Hark the Heart’; and artist Julia Thwaites for a new project related to the visual language of Catholicism.

The CAPO Fellowship, with a value of up to $15 000, and the Rosalie Gascoigne Memorial Award valued at up to $5000, are funded through the sale of donated art and business items at the annual fundraiser and auction, while other awards are sponsored by businesses trading in this region.