As a former Artistic Director of Melbourne International Festival of the Arts (the precursor to RISING), RISING is delighted to honour John Truscott’s commitment to Melbourne and his legacy of celebrating the city by partnering with the John Truscott Foundation to present the inaugural John Truscott Artists Award.
RISING and the John Truscott Foundation are pleased to announce that Genevieve Lacey and Erkki Veltheim for Consort of the Moon; and Amber McCartney for Tiny Infinite Deaths are the joint winners of inaugural John Truscott Artists Award for 2023.
These two works were chosen as the festival events which embodied the commitment of John Truscott to originality, excellence in production values and memorable audience engagement.
Similarly, the creation of this award reflects John passion for discovering, encouraging, mentoring and celebrating the many careers he touched here and beyond our shores.
Shortlisted works for the 2023 John Truscott Artists Award included: Night Trade, Ghetto Biennale, Anthem, Shadow Spirit, Electric, THIS, Consort of the Moon, Oh Deer! and Tiny Infinite Deaths
The John Truscott Foundation welcomes this special relationship with RISING in this city, on its stages and in the imaginative theatres of public spaces, marking a welcome return of John Truscott’s name to be associated with the city’s major arts festival This involvement for the Foundation adds to a program of new initiatives planned for activation throughout the year.
Theatre designer, Academy Award winning film designer and festival director, John Truscott changed both the way Melbourne saw itself and the way the rest of the world viewed Melbourne.
As artistic director of the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, he took the festival out into the streets, parks and laneways of the city transforming them into splendid, celebratory spaces that had all of Melbourne seeing them in an entirely new light.
Previously John had spent four years designing the spectacular interior finishes of the Victorian Arts Centre and in the process drawing together a remarkable collection of celebrated artists and fine artisans from around the country to realise his ambitious plans.
John honed his skills as a theatre designer, first in Melbourne winning numerous awards and then in London, after which, at the invitation of Jack L. Warner he left for Hollywood.
He spent the next fourteen years in America where he won two Academy Awards for art direction and costume design for Camelot starring Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Harris and Franco Nero and was production designer on Paint Your Wagon starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin.
For more information about the John Truscott Foundation, visit: www.truscottfoundation.com The RISING Festival took place across Melbourne: 7 – 18 June 2023. For more information, visit: www.rising.melbourne for details.
Image: Consort of the Moon – photo by Gregory Lorenzutti | Tiny Infinite Deaths – photo by Gregory Lorenzutti