The seven recipients of the 2009 Commonwealth Connections international arts residencies are as follows:
Sevcan Cerkez is a Cypriot artist producing her own unique, quirky brand of life-size ceramics. She is planning to visit Australia. Her work 'Old Lady Telling Fairytales', ceramics, 2007 is pictured above.
Heino Schmid is an installation artist and the first winner from the Bahamas, an indication of the growth and dynamism of the emerging arts scene in those islands. He is intending to visit Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere in the Caribbean to initiate a video programme based around storytelling and oral traditions.
Amarachi Okafor, an experimental installation artist from Nigeria, is planning to visit the Bahamas, where she has identified a number of local artists with whom to work.
Semisi Fetokai Potauaine is a Tufunga (highest level of practitioner/custodian of knowledge) of a number of the Tongan high arts with an extraordinary capacity to translate these to contemporary forms of creative expression appealing across Western countries and the Pacific. He is planning to study the Pacific Collections at Cambridge University Museum and Trinity College in the UK, and to pass on knowledge of Tongan traditional geometric designs.
Indian printmaker Sanhita Ghosh is planning to learn new mediums and printmaking techniques in Bangladesh as well as share her skills and experiences with fellow art students.
Painter and sculptor Yeoh Kean Thai is travelling from Malaysia to Sri Lanka to research the impact of war and natural disaster on society and the landscape. He plans to be based at the Theertha Arts Collective, which is part of the international Triangle Arts Network.
John Howland and Anna O'Keeffe from Australia are the first joint winners of a residency. Their individual artistic styles complement each other and together they are visiting Kiribati to study the effect of the rise in sea levels and the implications for Kiribati's future, through the context of their own art practice and resulting exhibitions, as well as through collaborations with local artists.