Entries for the biennial competition, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022, open 1 September, and close 4 December 2023.

Artists are invited to submit work for the Open Prize category, which carries a $30,000 cash prize donated by IAS Fine Art Logistics, or the Emerging Artist field, with a $10,000 prize provided by Hill Smith Art Advisory.

Winners and shortlisted finalists will feature in a major exhibition at the South Australian Museum in April 2024, with a $5,000 People’s Choice Prize sponsored by the K&S Langley Fund to be awarded by public vote at the exhibition’s conclusion.

Named after the South Australian Museum’s first curator, Frederick George Waterhouse, the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize recognises the long-running interplay between scientific research and the creative arts, from the illustrators and sculptors who help describe and catalogue specimens, to contemporary artists who invite us to think about the world around us in new and creative ways.

South Australian Museum Director Dr David Gaimster said the prize was an opportunity for creatives and practitioners across the art world to reflect on and respond to the natural world, biodiversity, and human impacts.

“Great art enriches and challenges the way we understand and experience the world, and over two decades the Waterhouse Natural Science Prize has shown time and again that the natural world makes fertile subject matter for today’s artists,” Dr Gaimster said.

Dr Gaimster, himself a former judge in the 2020 competition, said he looked forward to being surprised and moved by this year’s entries. “The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize is an exciting opportunity for artists and audiences alike to explore the convergence between art and science, whatever their medium, experience or place in the world.”

For more information and to enter visit: samuseum.sa.gov.au/waterhouseartprize

Image: Bioregional Rings (Central Coast), Kyoko Hashimoto and Guy Keulemans, 2022 Open Prize winner