Most Innovative Collaboration (sponsored by BCM Group)

This award recognises innovative collaborations between an individual or organisation and one or more creatives. Judges looked for collaborations where innovation was a clearly identified element of success.

WINNER: Artwork Ingredient List, nominated by UAP | Urban Art Projects in collaboration with Griffith University and Future Normal.

UAP, with its collaborators Griffith University and Future Normal, developed the Artwork Ingredient List as an innovative sustainability tool to calculate an artwork’s carbon footprint by mapping materials, labour, energy use and emissions.

Conceived and developed in Brisbane, but created with global applications in mind, Artwork Ingredient List is a world first for art and design - a pioneering tool to help artists, clients and makers understand environmental impacts and to make more informed decisions across an artwork’s lifecycle.

A $45,000 collaboration in cash and in-kind, UAP estimates the measurable impact at more than $400,000, but says the true value lies in engaging artists and commissioners to reduce carbon emissions and develop sustainability strategies. Artwork Ingredient List has been used in projects in the Middle East, Asia and the United States, adopted by blue-chip galleries like Hauser & Wirth, and has become the Gallery Climate Coalition’s benchmark on carbon footprinting tools.

UAP said one of the key project challenges was to ensure meaningful collaboration across partners to access reliable carbon emissions data and align on methodologies.

Developed in alignment with relevant ISO standards and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Artwork Ingredient List draws on internationally recognised emissions factors from sources including the Australian Department of Industry, the UK Department for Environment, the Inventory of Carbon and Energy in Europe, and EcoInvent.

Artwork Ingredient List is now a permanent feature in the arts community, offering artists and commissioners, worldwide, a new standard for transparency and environmental accountability in art production.

For the broader community and region, it positions Brisbane as a leader in sustainable cultural innovation.

The judges described the project as an enabler, developed with genuine cross-sector collaboration, that has international impact and reach and they commended the collaborators for their innovation, tangential and creative thinking.