The Ruapehu Art Awards is a national art competition with multiple categories held every second year in Ruapehu . In 2023 the event had 300 entries.

The Ruapehu Art Awards is a national art competition with multiple categories held every second year in Taumarunui, Ruapehu .
In 2023 the event had 300 entries from artists around the country. The goal for Ruapehu is to bring art visitors to the area to explore, stay, and play. For artists, this is a great opportunity to exhibit your artwork in a location that has excellent road frontage on State Highway 4 during the school holidays just down from Mt. Ruapehu, where there will be a lot of visitor traffic passing through.

The Next Ruapehu Art Awards event opens this September 17th, 2025 (prize-giving night), a couple of nights before the school holidays start. Entries will be available from the 1st of July to the 15th of August, and the last day to get your artwork in is September 3rd at 5pm—no exceptions… We are yet to finalise prizes, tweak terms, and finalise categories, but they will be much the same as our 2023 Ruapehu Art Awards, we expect.

To review the Ruapehu Art Awards go to www.ruapehuartawards.com

Are Categories

To be finalised:

• Premier prize $1000 (one winner which is selected from all Adult Categories)

• 2D: Open any wall hung artwork in any media $500

• Ruapehu Themed open media 2D $500

• 3D—Sculpture, Ceramics, Carving and any other type of 3D Artwork $500

• Maori Art-—open media 2D or 3D $500

• Photography $500

• Fibre Art $500

• Junior  2D & 3D up to  including year 8 Open section (all types of art) $100

• Young Adults (years 9–13): year 13  2D and 3D  Open (all types of art) $100

Basic Terms. More detail on our website.

• All Artworks must be generated by the Artist and not be assisted by AI.

• All Artworks entered must be the Artist’s own original Artworks created in the last 12 month and not having been entered into other Art competitions previously.

• All Artists must permanently reside in New Zealand.