Once again, the Australian School of the Arts held another outstanding annual Arts Academy Awards evening, celebrating the wonderful Arts related successes of so many of the College’s talented students.

Held on Saturday 3 October, the 2020 Arts Academy Awards, was the College’s 16th award ceremony of this kind. Held in the immaculately decorated Sheldon Event Centre, the evening followed a strict COVID-Safe Plan, allowing the guests to remain safe, but also able to enjoy one of the most highly anticipated nights of the College calendar.

As always, the event showcased and highlighted many of the College’s outstanding Arts students in the areas of Film, Television and New Media, Fine Arts, Fashion Design and Combined Performing Arts.

The evening featured a full night of spectacular student entertainment, including performances by the Arts Academy Band, Choir, Dancers, Vocalists and Award Nominees. Following so closely after the five-show run of Wicked the Musical, and with only two days of in venue preparation, audience members would have been forgiven for expecting a somewhat diminished version of Arts Academy Awards as we know it. Instead, they were treated to an evening of explosive talent and creativity, as students performed their hearts out for the sheer joy of being able to do so.

As expressed by Director of Co-Curricular, Mr Darren Harvey, the truly remarkable feat of the evening was that students learnt Arts Academy choreography, music and vocals back to back with that for Musical; retained it all in their heads whilst performing Musical and then, two weeks later, re-heated and performed it all, with minimal rehearsal time.

The Award winners for the following categories were:

Technical Producer of the Year
Timothy Vernon

Director of the Year
Grace Newlands

2D Multimedia Artist
Kallista Kellow

Interdisciplinary Artist
Paige Loveday

Classical Instrumentalist of the Year
Ella Rhodes

Contemporary Instrumentalist of the Year
William Bye

Dancer of the Year
Natalia Hines

Female Vocalist of the Year
Crispin Swartz

Male Vocalist of the Year
Zephram Chambers

Male Actor of the Year
Quinn Chambers
Paul Gossage

Actress of the Year
Crispin Swartz

Gold Award
Crispin Swartz

Middle College Cultural Award
Lucy Norman

Senior College Cultural Award
Sigrid Mather

Best Emerging Artist of the Year
Maia Steele-Alston

ASTA Award for Excellence
Ashley Barrett