Best Strategic Collaboration (sponsored by Kiosk Film)

This award recognises strategic collaborations between an individual or organisation and one or more creatives. Judges looked for evidence of the development and implementation of strategic activity that contributed to commercial and/or professional sustainability for the creatives.

WINNER: ANZ’s Walk This Way by Craig & Karl,nominated by Brisbane Festival in collaboration with ANZ, Griffith University Art Museum, Tourism and Events Queensland, Brisbane City Council and artists Craig Redman and Karl Maier.

ANZ’s Walk This Way by Craig & Karl was a strategically-developed collaboration that, through long‑term planning and cross‑sector coordination, transformed pedestrian bridges during the 2025 Brisbane Festival into large‑scale public artworks, embedding design into essential city infrastructure.

A temporary installation in the Brisbane CBD and on the Neville Bonner, Goodwill and Kangaroo Point Bridges, Craig & Karl’s large‑scale collaboration delivered an innovative, city‑transforming outcome for Brisbane and its communities.

The collaboration had to resolve complex challenges associated with embedding large‑scale artwork into live city infrastructure, including coordinating long‑term planning across multiple partners, and meeting engineering, safety, access and public‑realm requirements on heavily used pedestrian bridges.

By aligning artistic ambition with civic, commercial and cultural objectives, the project was able to support artistic practice at significant scale while delivering free, high‑visibility public outcomes.

For the artists, adapting their practice to architectural scale and public durability presented a significant creative challenge.

Resolving all the challenges resulted in a highly visible, sustainable model for integrating design into infrastructure, demonstrating how strategic partnerships can support ambitious creative practice while delivering public and commercial outcomes.

The collaboration strengthened Craig & Karl’s professional sustainability through multi‑platform presentation and institutional partnerships, while the partners advanced placemaking, brand alignment and Brisbane’s positioning as a globally-confident creative city.

The project’s scale, cross‑sector coordination and strategic alignment with tourism, place‑making and festival identity positioned Brisbane as a vibrant creative hub, generating lasting social, cultural and economic value for the region.

The judges described the project as an ambitious cross-sector collaboration that transformed major city infrastructure into large-scale public art to generate a cohesive cultural identity, with high public visibility, exemplifying strategic collaboration across corporate, civic and cultural sectors.

The judges further said the project was an excellent case study to inspire us to think ambitiously about what is possible for Brisbane 2032.