Winner of the inaugural Bridge Art Prize 2025

Winner: Bridges and Bloodlines, Emma Bugg

December 2nd, 1981

Price : $18 500

Everything comes from somewhere.
Everyone comes from somewhere.
Our stories connect the dots, forming bridges across time. Linking generations, marking the present, and carrying knowledge forward.

For me, the Bridgewater Bridge goes beyond infrastructure. It’s a thread woven through my family’s history. My parents grew up on opposite sides, my mother in Huonville, my father in Brighton. Both born in 1955, they met in 1977, crossing the river, converging their lives, and creating new generations.

This necklace is designed to be shared - worn between two people. It is a metaphor for the connections bridges create. Made from brass, copper, steel, aluminium, iron, zinc, basalt, bone, cast concrete, found objects, and enamel, it reflects both the old and new bridges, blending natural and man-made, raw and refined.

Just as the original bridge was hand-drawn with human precision and the new one is shaped by cutting-edge technology, this piece bridges past and future, holding memories while making way for what’s to come.

Materials: copper, brass, aluminium, iron, steel, enamel paint, bone, concrete with artists hair, basalt, found objects.

Documentation photography: Eden Meure

H=50cm x W=140cm x D=4cm

Copper, iron, brass, zinc, steel, enamel, aluminium, basalt, found objects, bone, cast concrete with artist's hair fibres

Highly Commended: In the Balance, Alexandra Pitt

February 18th, 1973

Price : $8 800

Vision, ingenuity, memory, connection. A portal to the other side. Transformation as we pass beneath the old; an altar to the Industrial Age. A tunnel-wrap of steel ribs and buttresses. The new; a monumental structure, a warm grey curve arching across the water, seemingly floating above the Bridgewater Jerry. We search for the Black Swans as we hang in the balance.

H=155cm x W=155cm x D=6cm
Drawing/Painting - Indian ink, Pastel and Gouache on Saunders Waterford paper with collaged mokulito print on Kozo paper

Highly Commended: Welcome Home, Brie Ratten

April 5th, 2000

Price: $2,800

Welcome Home is a 52 second hand drawn animation depicting a father working away from home. He is stuck in the draining monotonous loop of office work and struggling to sleep on his mother’s couch. The cycle breaks, his tiredness faltering, and a calmness washes over him as the trees fall away, revealing The Bridge with a view of the mountain behind. He smiles, knowing soon, he will get to see his loving family. The Bridge is not just a link between two places, but like an airport arrivals gate, it is an opportunity of physical connection between loved ones. This animation is based on my late father’s experiences of working away from his family, and the pure joy he would feel in the back of a taxi toward Hobart, seeing Kunanyi welcome him home. The New Bridgewater Bridge will be celebrated as a symbol of connection and love by families like mine.

Digitally drawn animation

Contractors Award Winner : New and Old Bridge, George Simonetis

October 21st, 1065


I wanted to represent the old and the new Bridgewater Bridge by combining them together.


H= 40cm x W= 700cm x D= 100cm
Steel sculpture

Juniors Award 15-18 Winner : Building Blocks of the Future, Adam Willson

18 years old

Price : $750

In August, I was lucky enough to get a tour of the location where much of the fabrication of building pieces occurred. I took this incredible photo, composed of a man in high visibility, explaining the project to those touring the facility, with the massive joining pieces of the bridge stacked behind him. The photo represents the jobs, coordination and hard work associated with this project. Pops of colour, dramatic weather and a clear sense of purpose drive this photograph.

Medium – Photograph

Juniors Award 15-18 Highly Commended: From the Land, Xayla Wilson

15 years old

$50

My piece is made with rocks and shells that have been collected along the Derwent River, representing the water and the land where the bridge has been built.

Medium - shells, rocks, paints, canvas and glue.

Juniors Award Under 15 Winner: Bridge Love, Jack Crump

14 Years Old

Price: $170

My dad is so excited by the bridge that he drives out most weekends to see its progress and likes us to go with him. He remembers his dad taking him to see the construction of the Bowen Bridge and in that way, it bridges 3 generations.

Medium – Paper, alcohol markers and fine liners

Juniors Under 15 Highly Commended : Grandpa’s Bridge Recipe, Frida Barclay

12 years old

Price : $150

I created this still life to honor the old Bridgewater Bridge and the materials that made it strong—concrete, timber, and steel. These objects sit together like ingredients in a recipe. The blue background represents the Derwent River, which has carried the bridge’s reflection for many decades. My painting is a tribute to the raw materials and engineering that have provided safe passage for people for 80 years.

Medium – Canvas and Oil Paint