Eloquence Prize 2026
Ends on
The Eloquence Art Prize ® is an annual national public speaking challenge open to students from participating universities across Australia. It rewards the best art talk on French and Australian cultural ties. The theme is specific and different each year.
The Prize winner will be selected via a three-stage process:
- In Stage 1, applicants will submit to their University a 400-word "Summary Paper", outlining a proposed 7-minute talk addressing the Prize theme. At each University, a panel will review these and select three short-listed applicants.
- In Stage 2, the short-listed applicants will submit a recording of their complete 7-minute talk, and from these the panels will each select a single representative for their University.
- In Stage 3, the representatives from all participating Universities will compete for the final prize, delivering their talks live (or, if not possible, via their recordings).
2026 THEME
The 2026 theme is "Art and Environment, France and Australia: Our forests and trees in danger". Students are invited to give a presentation comparing two artists, one Australian and one French, and analyse how a sensibility to nature has impacted their artworks, focusing on the theme of "our forests and trees" from the 19th century to the present. One of the artists has to be from the visual art discipline.
STAGE 1 APPLICATIONS: NOW OPEN, DUE 31 MAY
Applicants wishing to be considered for selection as a University of Sydney representative must submit a 400-word summary of their proposed 7-minute talk addressing the Prize theme (above).
Summary Papers will be evaluated according to these criteria:
- 10%: Compliance with submission intructions (including word limits);
- 15%: Quality of the sources and references used;
- 15%: Relevance of the argument to the Prize theme;
- 20%: Quality of writing and structure; and
- 40%: Interest, depth, originality of the argument.
Due date: 11:59PM, 31 May 2026.
ELIGIBILITY
Students must meet the following criteria to be eligible to participate in the challenge:
a) Students must be undertaking study within the Arts or Humanities disciplines.
b) Students must be in their final year of a Bachelor degree, or must be Honours, Graduate Certificate, Masters, or PhD students.
c) Students must be enrolled for the first semester of the calendar year in one of the participating Institutions (Cf. Appendix 1: universities participating in the 2026 Prize and their coordinators).
d) Students must be over the age of 18 and able to legally enter a contract under these T&C.
See full terms and conditions here.
MORE INFORMATION For information about the Prize, including full eligibility criteria and Terms and Conditions, please visit cultureplus.com.au/eloquence-art-prize