Announced as the 2024/25 recipient of The Grace Butler Memorial Foundation Award at Ara, artist Melissa Macleod is based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, her practice encompassing sculpture, photography, performance and more, in public galleries and artist-run spaces.

The Award comprises a $20,000 grant and support to develop new work in a three month residency supported by the Grace Butler Memorial Foundation and studio at Ara Institute of Canterbury Art and Design. Established by Grace Adams (1923 – 2012), daughter of Canterbury-based artist Grace Butler (1886 – 1962), over more than four decades her paintings captured the light and colour of Waitaha Canterbury and in particular, the Arthur’s Pass region and New Brighton, bridging the divide between 19th century landscape painting and an emerging modernism in New Zealand.

Butler’s paintings provided a model for the generation that followed and in the establishment of the Grace Butler Foundation Award, her daughter further established a contemporary award for artists to run in perpetuity, maintaining an association with Waitaha Canterbury, their practice giving consideration to place and environment. Recipients of the Foundation Award to date are: Zina Swanson 2018, Louise Palmer 2020, Ana Iti 2022 and in 2024/25 Melissa Macleod.

The selection panel for 2024/25 were: Chloe Cull, (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāi te Ruahikihiki) Pouarataki Curator Māori position, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; Rosie Ibbotson, senior lecturer in Art History and Theory at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury, and Kim Lowe, printmaker, artist, educator and senior lecturer at Ara in Art, Design and Creativity. The panel commented in their decision that “Melissa’s proposal was ambitious but achievable, driven by a deep love and care for her community and this whenua. Her experience and long career making her an asset to Ara over the residency period and a great role model for ākonga (a student) to look to over that time.

“As judges we feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to review the many applications for the Grace Butler Memorial Foundation Award. They underscore the vibrancy and quality of Aotearoa New Zealand’s art community. A testament to the exceptionally high calibre of the applications is how many prescient and inventive yet viable projects were proposed and engagingly delineated. Needless to say, the process of selecting only one winner for the residency was beyond difficult, and indeed reaffirmed the acute importance of increased material support for the arts locally and nationally. Kā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa i ō koutou whakapau kaha, auahataka, me ō koutou manawanuitaka.