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Arts awards

Tony Jones Recognised for Lifelong Contribution to WA Arts

Tony Jones’s 2024 State Cultural Treasure award recognises a wide-ranging contribution to Western Australian arts, from painting and sculpture to public commissions and artist education.

By ThatPainter Team 2 min read
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Western Australian artist Tony Jones received a State Cultural Treasure award at a ceremony in November 2024, recognising his contribution to the state’s arts. His career spans painting, drawing and sculpture, as well as public commissions and work supporting arts organisations and artists.

What the State Cultural Treasure award recognises

PerthNow reported on 14 December 2024 that Jones was honoured at the November 2024 awards ceremony. The award recognises his contribution to Western Australian arts, rather than a single artwork or medium. Jones told PerthNow, “I was quite thrilled, actually, because I had a pretty rough year.” PerthNow’s report is the dated account of his recognition.

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The awards have a longer history: the WA Government says they were formerly called the State Living Treasures Awards and began in 1998. Its announcement from 7 December 2022 concerns that year’s recipients, not Jones’s 2024 award. The Government’s 2022 announcement provides historical context, but should not be read as the announcement of Jones’s award.

A practice spanning painting, drawing and sculpture

The Sculpture at Bathers artist profile describes Jones as a Western Australian artist whose career spans more than five decades. It reports 20 solo exhibitions, more than 100 group exhibitions and over 60 public art commissions; these are figures from the profile, not independently audited totals. Sculpture at Bathers’ Tony Jones profile describes the recurring forms in his work: boat hulls and sails, flags and human figures. Across paintings, drawings and sculptures, these motifs engage with humanity and its fates.

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That range matters to understanding the recognition. Jones’s contribution includes artworks made for galleries and public places, alongside sustained participation in the institutions and education that support artists in Western Australia.

Public artworks rooted in local places

Two public works highlighted in artist profiles connect Jones’s practice with local history. Eliza is associated with the former Crawley Baths site in the Swan River. His C. Y. O’Connor work is located in the water at Coogee Beach. The profiles describe both as works representing aspects of local history.

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Apparatus also outlines Jones’s practice and names these public works in its Tony Jones artist profile. Read together, the examples show how his sculptural work extends beyond a studio setting into familiar Western Australian landscapes.

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Contribution beyond individual artworks

The Sculpture at Bathers profile also credits Jones with helping educate a generation of Western Australian artists and with establishing or governing arts initiatives. These include Praxis Inc., the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, the “Basel Residency” and Sculpture at Bathers. This institution-building work offers another dimension to his contribution: supporting places and opportunities through which artists can learn, exhibit and work.

The Town of East Fremantle newsletter provides local-government corroboration of Jones’s award recognition and public-art examples. The newsletter adds a local perspective to the accounts of his career and works.

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