Hadley’s Orient Hotel has a long history with art – from art collector landlords in the late 1800s to major exhibitions in the 1920s and ‘30s. Early landlord Howard Hadley won a landscape art prize in 1895, and embarked on painting lessons in Victoria before returning to Hobart to run the hotel after his father.

Current majority owners of Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Don Neil and Annette Reynolds dreamt up the idea on the 90th anniversary of the first solo exhibition held at Hadley’s Orient Hotel – a series of landscape paintings by John Eldershaw.

Don grew up on a farm in rural Victoria and started working in a shoe factory, cutting leather patterns. When his manager had a sporting injury, Don was promoted from the factory floor and told to buy a hat for his first trip interstate. That trip was to Hobart to sell shoes in one of the rooms at Hadley’s. Many years later, after much success in the shoe business, Don purchased Hadley’s Orient Hotel from receivers and employed an expert team to sensitively restore the historic hotel to the special place he remembered.

For Don Neil, the Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart is about giving back to the art community (as artists and art-loving tourists have been flocking to Hobart and filling local hotels ever since the opening of MONA), bringing art back to the historic walls of Hadley’s Orient Hotel though a landscape prize like Howard Hadley won, and celebrating the work of contemporary Australian landscape artists.

The prize exposes artists to new audiences and enables emerging artists to be shown alongside established artists. Being held just after the Festival of Voices, the prize contributes to Hobart’s winter calendar of events and encourages cultural tourism.

The Hadley’s Art Prize is an acquisitive award. The collection of winning artworks will be displayed at Hadley’s Orient Hotel.

The Hadley’s Art Prize will be awarded to the work the judges deem to be the best portrayal of the Australian landscape.

Artists are invited to think openly about the notion of landscape in terms of visually engaging with and representing place. Australian seas and skies are accepted as landscapes.

May be in any medium but must be wall-mountable (excluding film and unmanipulated photographs on paper). Work that is partly photographic in nature but whereby other materials or processes have been used to physically or digitally manipulate the image may be accepted but only at the curator’s absolute discretion.

160cm (height) x 160cm (width). This must include framing. A stretched canvas is considered framed.

For consistency and fairness, we are only accepting entries that meet the requirements in the Conditions of Entry. The maximum size is by height and width, not by total square cm. The maximum size must include framing.

The maximum weight is 16kg

An entry requires:– Completion of the online entry form– A non-refundable entry fee of $50 (GST inclusive) per submission– A high-resolution image of the artwork (recommended minimum 2500 x 2500 pixels)– A short artist statement/story (no more than 100 words) about the work– An up-to-date 1-page artist CV

A panel of three Australian art specialist judges will select the finalists, the winner and the recipients of highly commended prizes. For more about the judges click here.

Entries can only be made through the online entry form. This is the most efficient way to collate the entries for judging. If you have any difficulties using the online entry form please contact us (contact@hadleysartprize.com.au) and we can assist you.

You can only upload 1 image of your artwork in the online entry form. If there are multiple pieces to the artwork they must be combined into 1 image.

Yes if you are an Australian citizen.

27 March 5pm AEST.  The online entry portal will close at this time. No late entries will be accepted.

Finalists will be notified by email and mail as soon as judging is complete in May. Finalists will be notified by email and phone and then be listed online at hadleysartprize.com.au

The winner will be announced on Friday 31 July 2026

At Hadley’s Orient Hotel, 34 Murray Street Hobart from 1 August - 23 August 2026

Hadley’s Orient Hotel will have special accommodation packages available during the exhibition. Accommodation can be booked through the Hadley’s Orient Hotel website.

If you would like to enter a photographic artwork, we recommend you discuss it with our curator, Dr Amy Jackett, who can be reached on curator@hadleysartprize.com.au

As there are many dedicated photography prizes, we have a particular clause regarding photography. Our criteria for photography requires further artistic intervention: digital work can be partly photographic in nature; for manual photography, this could be achieved through the processing, such as double exposing, cross-processing, film manipulation (e.g. scratching, drawing, and marking), emulsion lifting, hand colouring, or collage. Or it may be that you creatively present the work through the way it is framed and displayed.