The 2023 Art2Words Writing Prize

The Art2Words Writing Prize is an annual writing competition at The Friends’ School. Founded in 1887, The Friends’ School, an independent, coeducational day and boarding school located in the heart of Hobart, Tasmania, is the largest Quaker School in the world (and the only Quaker School in Australia), offering education programs from early learning through to Year 12.

Established in 2020, the Art2Words Writing Prize is based on the ancient Greek practice of ekphrasis (responding to an artwork in words) and involves students writing either a short story or poem in response to student artwork. The artwork which is the inspiration for the creative writing is that of the winner of the school's Visual Arts Prize of the previous year. The Visual Arts Prize is an annual award, granted to a senior art student for their consistently exceptional approach to their practice, rigour of research and ideation, complexity and sophistication of the ideas and issues they explore, and the professional quality of their exhibited works.

Read the artists' statements below.