Surrounded by over 120 artworks donated by Canberra region artists, who packed-in for the cocktail-style event, the awards were presented by patron Paul McDermott and the individual sponsors of the many awards, most of them businesses trading in the ACT.

The CAPO Awards provide financial and in-kind support for a range of new arts projects by emerging and established artist. 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.

The Robert Foster Memorial Award of $3000 has been funded through public donations in memory of the later designer and artist.

The night’s top award, the CAPO Fellowship, went to Queanbeyan-based sculptor Alex Asch, who has been experimenting with melted down TV sets. He said he would use his fellowship to collaborate with metal manufacturers and fabricators to build skills, develop techniques and create unique sculptural works for outdoor exhibitions.

The Rosalie Gascoigne Memorial Award, partly funded by Bates & Pickering, went to Dan Lorimer, who will use this Award to develop new large-scale sculptures, which investigate his use of hydroforming steel for an exhibition at “Contour 556” by the lake in 2018.

The Tall Foundation Award was awarded to musician and composer Michael Sollis, who will use the award to create “The Milk Carton Chronicles” for a percussionist, creating recycled instruments live, with audio-visual documenting of the life cycles of recycled objects.

The Robert Foster Memorial Award went to Niklavs Rubenis to create a body of work in conjunction with The Green Shed resource centre, and to video-document the process.

The inaugural Dixon Advisory Award was given to textile artist Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser. She will work with an indigo-dye master in Japan to create a new body of work for a solo show in Canberra in 2018.

Other awards went to Paul Dumetz to mount an exhibition, to Sally Greenaway and Emma Kelly to compose a concerto, John Loane, to create a body of work in print, Chris Endrey, to support the touring of his 2017 solo album “Lost + Found”, Annette Blair for a new body of glass work, resulting in a solo exhibition at Beaver Galleries, Cat Mueller to attend the “HoBiennale 2017”, Anna Madeleine, to create a series of new virtual reality works, Marzena Wasikowska, to photograph Aurora Polaris and significant fjords and glaciers in Norway, Keith Bender to construct a large scale sculpture made from corten steel, Michele England, to create quilts, zines and posters on fabric and paper, and Toby Graham will use the award to create the pop art work, “Death’s Insta”.

All details of CAPO may be found at capo.org.au