20/11/2001

A new art award, the Walters Prize was launched at the Auckland Art Gallery on the 4th of November. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said she hoped the new $ 50,000 (€ 55,726) prize would foster debate and "conversation" about contemporary New Zealand art. The Walters Prize is named after Gordon Walters, considered one of New Zealand's pioneering artists and one of the first to use Maori motifs in his work. He died in 1995, aged 76. Based on the structure of the British Turner prize, artists will not submit work for the prize but will instead be nominated by a panel of four yet-to-be-named judges who remain secret until the announcement of the finalists in March 2002. An international expert will decide the winner from four finalists. The winner will exhibit at advertising company Saatchi & Saatchi's Tokyo headquarters. The company, along with Ernst & Young, is a chief sponsor. (James Goulder)