This web page relates to the 2025 Museums Victoria Gold Jewellery Acquisitive Prize, which was awarded in October 2025. The Museums Victoria Gold Jewellery Acquisitive Prize will run next in 2027.
Australian jewellers and creative practitioners are invited to draw inspiration from the State of Victoria Gold Jewellery Collection and apply for the inaugural Museums Victoria Gold Jewellery Acquisitive Prize.
With an opportunity to be awarded one of three prizes – the Major Prize, First Peoples Prize and the Emerging Prize – jewellers and creative practitioners are invited to submit a creative response to the State of Victoria Gold Jewellery Collection. Applications should detail a proposal for a piece of jewellery or adornment that addresses the complex role of gold in historical and contemporary Victoria.
Despite the breadth of the State of Victoria Gold Jewellery Collection, many perspectives – particularly those of First Peoples – are conspicuously missing. The Museums Victoria Gold Jewellery Acquisitive Prize seeks to remedy the absence of these narratives by inviting contemporary retellings of the Victorian gold story, including its environmental, scientific, cultural, political and social impacts.
While the collection focusses on the Victorian context, applications are welcomed from jewellers and creative practitioners from across Australia, where the extraction and use of gold has been similarly impactful. Applications are not necessarily required to incorporate material gold but must critically engage with the gold story’s key themes.
Prize Categories
- Major Prize – $20,000
- First Peoples Prize – $15,000
- Emerging Prize – $8,000
Each prize awarded covers the commission of the proposed piece and its acquisition into the State of Victoria Gold Jewellery Collection.
