ARTSHOP grows its commitment to local artists and the regional arts sector

🎥 Scroll down or click here to watch ARTSHOP Director Cherylyn Russell on Toowoomba's September art season.

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Each September, the Graham Centre at Toowoomba’s Downlands College fills with new work, as artists from the local region, South East Queensland and Australia-wide bring the Downlands Art Exhibition (DAX) to life. This year, two artists will leave with more than recognition on the wall: they will receive the chance to explore their practice further with funded professional development. 

ARTSHOP has sponsored this exhibition since 1995. Founded in 1990, our Toowoomba studio specialises in conservation framing and the restoration of art and frames, using museum-standard materials and methods. This year, our care extends into the sponsorship of two artist awards: the DAX Curator’s Encouragement Award, a long-standing feature of the exhibition now delivered with the Toowoomba Art Society (TAS), and the inaugural ARTSHOP Prize for Artistic Presentation, which will send its winner to the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ)’s annual McGregor Art Workshops in January 2027. 

The recipient of the DAX Curator’s Encouragement Award is chosen by the exhibition’s curatorial team, led by Curator Evan Hollis, who has selected the exhibition’s works for many years. This year, the award gives the winning artist professional development, via include tuition and mentorship from an established TAS member of their choosing. 

Evan is an artist too: a Fine Art graduate of the University of Southern Queensland, with solo exhibitions at the Stanthorpe Regional Gallery and finalist placements in the Lethbridge 10,000 and Lethbridge Landscape Prize. His connection to Downlands College’s Arts Department began in 1999, growing by 2006 into curating the RME Downlands Art Exhibition, a role he's held ever since. 

"I love being part of the Curator's Encouragement Award," says Curator Evan Hollis. "Narrowing the field down to one artist is never easy when the calibre of work at Downlands is so consistently high. This award can go to someone just starting out, or to an artist well into their career trying something different — overall, it's for someone who is pushing the envelope, exploring new media and new ways to express themselves. I've stood on both sides of that line myself, as an exhibiting artist and later as someone selecting the work of others, and I know how much it means to have your potential recognised, and to be encouraged and supported in taking that next step."

TAS President Catherine Ketton is delighted that the Society will take on a professional development provider role. "We are so grateful to ARTSHOP for sponsoring this award and for inviting us to help deliver it," she says. "It's a wonderful initiative that benefits two members of our arts community at once: the awarded artist, and the TAS member the winner chooses to deliver their professional development. We so look forward to celebrating the winner on DAX Opening Night and supporting their artistic journey." 

The new award for 2026 is the ARTSHOP Prize for Artistic Presentation, which looks at a different part of an artist’s craft, specifically how a finished work of art comes together for display. The role of artistic presentation of an artwork is one that Cherylyn Russell, our owner and director, believes deserves its own spotlight. 

"Artists often care deeply about, and have a real vision for, the integrated presentation of their artwork ‘beyond its edges’, Cherylyn says. “Presentation of the subject matter, the medium used, its sympathetic framing design, the workmanship, the finesse, the resolution of an artist's language into a finished piece — these elements shape how a work is received, interpreted, and how it's remembered," she says. "This prize is about how the art and its surroundings come together and communicate. That's the craft we want to celebrate, wherever we find it." 

The winner of this inaugural award will be awarded a place at the 2027 UniSQ McGregor Art Workshops in a stream of their choosing that aligns with their area of artistic exploration. 

For Cherylyn, the instinct to support artistic development runs in the family: her paternal grandmother founded and ran The Pittwater College of Music on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, funding arts tuition for some children who couldn't otherwise afford lessons. This same conviction, that talent should be nurtured with opportunity, has shown up throughout Cherylyn's life and career: giving people safe spaces to build and explore their creativity, and connecting them with the right opportunity, a mentor, a placement, or someone willing to help them grow. 

"Artists do more for a community than most people realise," Cherylyn adds. "They cultivate reflection and conversation, evoke memory, and speak to the human condition. They draw people and cultural tourism into our region, and they sustain a whole layer of business activity: the studios, the galleries, the fundraisers, the buyers, and more, that flows back into our local economy in ways that aren't always visible. Supporting the arts is an investment in something we all benefit from. It's why we love doing it." 

Now in its 39th year, the Downlands Art Exhibition is the major fundraiser for Downlands College's Parents and Friends Committee, supporting college facilities, student pastoral care and community ties. Past exhibitions have funded new art equipment and helped establish an artist-in-residence program. The show's 2026 entries number more than 800, thoughtfully curated and drawn from across the country as well as closer to home, from celebrated names to emerging voices. They span contemporary, traditional and Indigenous work across painting, sculpture, printmaking and more. 

"ARTSHOP has been a Gold Sponsor of the Downlands Art Exhibition since 1995," says Cassandra Hunter, Manager – Marketing & Development at Downlands College. "Their growing support, now with these two awards, extends what the exhibition can offer its artists well beyond the show itself. It's a generous commitment that will have a lasting impact, which the show's artists will greatly appreciate." 

Both awards are open to every artist exhibiting in the show. The 2026 Downlands Art Exhibition runs from 19 to 23 September at Downlands College, with winners announced at the Gala Opening on Friday, 18 September. 

There's even more happening across Toowoomba this September. Hear from ARTSHOP Director Cherylyn Russell in the video below, as she shares what else is on — from the Toowoomba Studio Art Trail to the inaugural UniSQ Biennial Art Prize and beyond.

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