WA composer wins $50,000 Minderoo prize for groundbreaking album exploring the sounds of motherhood

27 Feb 2026 – Acclaimed West Australian composer and producer Elise Reitze-Swensen has won the $50,000 Minderoo Artist Fund Award for her work to capture the sounds of new motherhood, an ambitious musical project in collaboration with fellow musicians, songwriters and composers.

Reitze-Swensen’s project Matrescence in Sound included the 20-track electronic album, Life We’ve Known, exploring the social, psychological and physical changes experienced during pregnancy, childbirth and new motherhood.

The multi-award-winning musician was supported as part of the 2025 cohort of the Minderoo Artist Fund, which provides grants and residencies to mid-career West Australian artists to create bold new work and extend their artistic practice.

Nicola Forrest AO said Elise Reitze-Swensen embraced the Artist Fund opportunity to its full potential and was inspired by her ongoing efforts to make the Australian music sector more inclusive for women, mothers and caregivers.

“Independent artists are the lifeblood of a thriving creative sector and we know there are many challenges to sustaining an artistic career,” she said.

“I’m proud this program continues to grow each year and supports such a diverse network of high-quality artists who continue to take bold risks and explore new directions.”

Dr Andrew Forrest AO said Minderoo’s support for WA’s creative ecosystem – including through the Minderoo Artist Fund - reflects the Foundation’s belief that creativity, culture and education are essential to thriving economies and communities.

“The arts aren’t a nice to have – the arts are a must have. Because when communities are empowered to tell their stories, celebrate their cultures, and imagine new futures together, they thrive,” Dr Forrest said.

“Artists are crucial for this connection – their creativity, passion and skill inspire us to imagine a different world for ourselves. I’m excited to see what this talented cohort shares with us.”

Eight artists make up the 2026 cohort, including the following:

• Acclaimed WA theatre writer and performer Andrea Gibbs, founder of Barefaced Stories
• Internationally acclaimed songwriter, producer and DJ Rachel Claudio, whose viral TEDx talk “How to Translate the Feeling into Sound” has reached 2.7 million views worldwide
• Visual artist and designer Tim Meakins, whose solo exhibition Muscle Beach filled the rooftop of the Art Gallery of Western Australia with bold, playful sculptures
• Ballardong artist Dianne Jones, whose photographic and conceptual works are held across many significant public collections including the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Each artist within the new cohort will receive either a $35,000 grant or a six-week residency at Forrest Hall in Perth as they pursue a new artistic project to further develop their career and artistic practice.

Minderoo has also introduced a $15,000 prize in honour of Georgia Malone, a highly respected member of the arts community and Minderoo team, who passed away in 2025.

The Georgia Malone Prize will be awarded to one recipient from the yearly cohort who has shown resilience, innovation and courage in delivering their Artist Fund project and in their approach to sustaining a career in the arts.

WA performer, producer and director Sarah Nelson is the inaugural winner for her stage project Into the Fog, which explores her experience in prolonged isolation in the UK with Long Covid and subsequent Functional Neurological Disorder.

Minderoo Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2026 and since its inception CEO John Hartman said it has had a rich history of championing Western Australia’s arts sector.

“Minderoo is proud to partner with iconic local institutions like WAAPA, the Black Swan Theatre Company, PICA and Barking Gecko Arts – but our support doesn’t stop at the big stages, reaching into communities right across the state,” Mr Hartman said.

“By directly supporting local artists, we are working to increase access to a rich cultural life in this state. A well-resourced arts sector will expand the breadth and depth of arts, culture and creativity, leading to more vibrant and connected communities across Western Australia.”

Minderoo has also entered a 25-year partnership with Edith Cowan University to help deliver a new state-of-the-art home for the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at ECU City.

 

Artists and their projects for the 2026 Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund

A gallery of artist headshots is available here

Recipients of $35,000 grants

• Dianne Jones is a Ballardong Noongar artist from Western Australia whose practice interrogates colonial representations of Aboriginal peoples through photography and conceptual art. Truth-telling in the Frame: Reclaiming Stories at Woodbridge is a site-responsive photo-media project that will interrogate the layered histories of Woodbridge House, a colonial homestead.
• Adriano Cappelletta is a writer, actor and producer. He is the creator, co-writer and executive producer of the four-part musical drama television series In Our Blood. Rainbow Rewind is a feature film screenplay set in WA, which follows Marco, a lifelong bachelor who returns to Perth for his father’s funeral and unexpectedly reconnects with his high school crush, prompting Marco to stage a ‘redo’ high school formal in his forties, this time inviting the queer classmates from his 1990s cohort.
• Martine Perret is a photographic artist based in Margaret River and originally from Paris. Her work captures the WA landscape through aerial imagery and portraiture. Saltwater Women of the Midwest is a multimedia exhibition celebrating the strength, resilience, and spirit of women from Western Australia’s Midwest region.
• Dr Muriel Hillion Toulcanon is a Reunionese-Australian multi-disciplinary artist, researcher and cultural leader pioneering Maloya music and dance in Australia. Maloya: Treasure Lines is a research driven performance project, connecting the 18th century pirate figure Olivier “La Buse” and his possible hidden treasure, One-Piece the best-selling manga series, and Maloya the traditional music and dance of Reunion Island, born out of slavery and banned until 1981.
• Andrea Gibbs is a writer, performer, and storyteller. She is the creator and artistic director of Barefaced Stories. The Way We Go About It is a family-comedy drama play about how one family navigates the emotional, moral and practical realities of Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia.
• Sherry Quiambao is a multidisciplinary artist of Australian-Filipina heritage working across photography, video, sculpture and installation. Adrift is a major project exploring water as a vessel for connection, adaptation and resilience. The core inspiration for the project are the floating dwellings of South Sulawesi reimagined through a WA lens.

Recipient of six-week residency at Forrest Hall

• Tim Meakins is an Artist and Designer from Perth, currently based in the Pilbara. Working across sculpture, painting, print, animation and publishing. Laying Down and Looking Up will explore the tension between digital and physical making and society’s growing reliance on technology and how this shapes creative expression.

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