Postgraduate Scholarships and Opportunities

NAS offers valuable professional development opportunities to graduating students. Including:

  • International Residencies
  • Scholarships to support further study & research travel
  • Awards with a total value of $200k per year
  • Exhibitions
  • Internships

These opportunities ensure that the talent & artistic potential of our students continues to develop & flourish beyond study at NAS.

Applications for our 2025 Postgraduate Scholarships and Opportunities are now open. See the application timelines, guidelines and forms for each opportunity below.

ABORIGINAL ART CENTRE INTERNSHIPS

The National Art School (NAS) is now accepting applications for the 2025 Aboriginal Art Centre Internship program. Now in its thirteenth year, this internship program is made possible through the generous support of Sharon Toffler and Mark Tedeschi AM QC.

These internships provide graduating students with an opportunity to acquire practical arts management experience and training in an active Aboriginal community art centre environment. Working closely with the Art Centre Manager, interns will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working with artists and day-to-day arts centre operations. Successful applicants are expected to take up the internship in 2025.

In 2024 Internships will be offered with Ernabella Arts Incorporated in far north-west South Australia and Tapatjatjaka Arts located at Titjikala, Northern Territory. Recipients will be provided with transport to and from the art centre, accommodation, and stipend for the ten-week period of the internship.

Applications are open to students completing the Bachelor of Fine Art or Master of Fine Art programs in 2024.

Applications for the 2025 program are open until Monday 11 November 2024.

Please read the Application Guidelines before completing the Application Form.

MARK HENRY CAIN MEMORIAL TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIP

THE MARK HENRY CAIN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP 

An annual award of $10,000 in commemoration of Mark Henry Cain, an artist trained at Glasgow School of Art who relocated to Sydney in 1937. The Mark Henry Cain Memorial Scholarship supports an MFA student to travel for their artistic research for a period of 6-8 weeks in the UK (including England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). The award is supported by generous endowment made by a private donor.

Applications for 2024/2025 have closed and the Scholarship has been awarded to Fergus Berney-Gibson. Applications for 2025/2026 and will reopen in April 2025. 

EAST SYDNEY DOCTORS SCHOLARSHIP

The East Sydney Doctors Scholarship is a generous opportunity funded by East Sydney Doctors, providing $5,000 to a student completing the first year of the Master of Fine Art degree and going into the second year of the program at the National Art School.

The recipient is intended to use them as a stipend to support living and study expenses.

This Award is open to students continuing their progress in the Master of Fine Art program at the National Art School.

Applications for the 2025 program are open until Monday 11 November 2024.

Please read the Application Guidelines before completing the Application Form.

TWEED REGIONAL GALLERY & MARGARET OLLEY ART CENTRE NANCY FAIRFAX (AIR) AWARD

The Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre boasts an on-site, live-in artist in residence studio called the Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio (AIR).

The AIR studio is generously supported by benefactor Mr Tim Fairfax AC and named in honour of his mother Nancy Fairfax, who was a great friend of Margaret Olley.

The AIR program includes:

  • A $5000 stipend
  • A two to four-week studio residency in March 2025
  • A three-month solo exhibition in 2026, in the Friends Gallery at the Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre.

Applications for the 2025 program are open until Monday 18 November 2024.

Please read the Application Guidelines before completing the Application Form.

LIFT OFF AWARD

The Lift Off Award, generously funded by private donors, will provide $20,000 to a promising graduating MFA candidate from the National Art School.

The successful recipient will be eligible to use the funding to undertake an artist residency, international travel, to establish a studio, purchase specialised equipment, mount an exhibition, a publication or any project that requires a lift off to support their burgeoning art practice.

Applications for the 2025 Award are open until Monday 11 November 2024.

Please read the Application Guidelines before completing the Application Form.

CLITHEROE FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP

The National Art School is proud to have a generous scholarship of $20,000 to support a student studying in the Master of Fine Art Program. Funded by the Clitheroe Foundation, this scholarship is open to current Bachelor of Fine Art Students who are immediately applying to continue study at the School in the Master of Fine Art program. The scholarship can be used for fees and course costs or as a stipend to support living expenses for the two-year duration of the course.

Applications for the scholarship are made as part of the application to the Master of Fine Art program.

Applications for the Master of Fine Art are open until Monday 4 November 2024.

Please read the Application Guidelines before completing the Application Form.

More information on the Scholarships can be found here: Clitheroe Foundation Scholarship Information.

THE STANDISH & CO SCHOLARSHIP

The Standish & Co Scholarship, a newly established opportunity generously funded by Standish & Co, provides $5,000 to a student continuing from the Bachelor of Fine Art Program into the Master of Fine Art program and majoring in Photomedia. The recipient is intended to use the funds as a stipend to support living and study expenses. The Scholarship also provides $5,000 of in-kind printing at Look Print and mentorship (valued at $5,000) over the two years of the MFA degree.

Applications for the scholarship are made as part of the application to the Master of Fine Art program.

Applications for the Master of Fine Art are open until Monday 4 November 2024.

Please read the Application Guidelines before completing the Application Form.

More information on the Scholarships can be found here: Standish & Co Scholarship Information.

TROPICAL LAB International Art Camp

Applications for 2025 are closed. 2026 dates coming soon. 

The nineteenth edition of the renowned TROPICAL LAB, an international art camp for art academies and institutes, will take place from 17 July to 1 August 2025 at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore.

TROPICAL LAB is an intensive and highly engaging fourteen-day event, bringing together more than 20 student-artists from various art colleges and institutions around the world. TROPICAL LAB is a real and imaginative space for student artists to research, experiment and collaborate to create contemporary artworks, regardless of medium, method and approach.

The event will include workshops, talks and seminars guided by established international and Singaporean artists culminating in an exhibition curated by LASALLE’s curatorial division, Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore at LASALLE.

Please read the Application Guidelines before completing the Application Form.

More information on the Scholarships can be found here.

CONTACT

Student Services

+61 2 9339 8744

[email protected]

Emily Ebbs during her residency at the Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio in 2023. Image credit: Tweed Regional Gallery & Margeret Olley Art Centre.
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Thank you to everyone who attended the opening night of ‘Queer Contemporary: Chaosophy’ 
‘Chaosophy’ is now open until Saturday 8 March
11am – 5pm Monday to Saturday
Building 25 Project Space
Free admission, all welcome 
Learn more about the exhibition at the link in bio.
NAS Library is proud to launch their 2025 Library Stairwell Gallery programming with this years LSG show for Queer Contemporary, ‘Subtexts’, opening this Thursday 13 February.  ‘Subtexts’ unites four artists whose work demonstrates the complexities of queer identity, each considering their own personal relationship with queerness. The show offers alternative narratives and styles that challenge notions of queer uniformity, opting to explore the undertones and implications of queerness as a dislocated front.  ‘Subtexts’ asks of the ambiguous term; Are we united by virtue of our difference, or rather the unique positions it presents us?  Featuring works by
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We’re looking for an Exhibitions Project Officer!  The role has a focus on major Indigenous exhibition projects currently in development for the National Art School as well as touring programs. The role assists with the delivery and coordination of Gallery programs, talks, and other events in the gallery spaces.  You have a background in visual art, art history, curatorship and gallery experience. You have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, along with strong organisational and project management experience.  Note this is an Identified Role and is open to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicants only, in accordance with Section 14(D) of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act, 1977 NSW.  Application deadline extended to Sunday 9 February.  Apply at the link in bio.
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Ronan Pirozzi, 'Serpentine', 2023; 'Trajectory', 2023; 'Desolate', 2023; installation view, undo the day, NAS Gallery, Sydney, 2024, oil on welded steel, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Zan Wimberley
The National Art School has today announced respected Australian academic, writer and curator Dr Kristen Sharp as the next Director and Chief Executive Officer.  Kristen joins the National Art School with extensive experience in the fields of contemporary art and tertiary education having spent six years as Associate Dean Discipline, Art in the School of Art at RMIT University, and previously 9 years as Academic Lead Art History and Theory at RMIT. She will commence her new role at the National Art School on 24th February 2025.  Read the full media release at the link in bio.
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