Sydney twin sisters score success

Australia’s top emerging creatives won the British Council’s 2010 Realise Your Dream award and will travel to the U.K to meet leading practitioners in their chosen field.

The five talented winners, all in the emerging stages of their career, were selected from a bumper crop of more than 600 entries from across the country.

The winners include Maricor Maricar, artisan designers and twin sisters from Newtown, Sydney.

Artisan designers and twin sisters Maricor and Maricar Manalo from Sydney create animations and static designs.

Recently employed at Sydney’s Mathematics agency, the sisters have produced idiosyncratic video clips for bands including Architecture in Helsinki, for whom they hand-sewed scores of embroidered characters which were later animated.

The twins' U.K plans extend to gaining professional guidance from companies such as Partizan Lab and Studio AKA, as well as to undertake short technical courses at Central St Martin’s College.

Now in its eighth year, Realise Your Dream is a prize among creative scholarships offering industry hook-ups that have seen past winners expand their careers, both in Australia and internationally.

The prize awards each winner a return flight to the UK with Virgin Atlantic and an $8,000 NAB Cash Passport from National Australia Bank to cover their expenses.

But the key part of the prize is a tailored professional development program, including meetings, placements and mentoring. The British Council will tap into its network in the U.K creative industries to help open the doors winners need most to further their careers.

The winners are those applicants who displayed innovation and leadership in their chosen fields, and who have a clear vision of how they’ll benefit from connecting with the UK’s best.

British Council director Nick Marchand said: “This year’s winners showed impressive talent, passion and commitment to their crafts. I highly commend each on their outstanding work and ongoing contribution to the creative industries.”

Chris Taylor from The Chaser hosted the awards ceremony and spoke about the importance of program like Realise Your Dream for supporting Australian creativity.

The awards will run again in 2011.

www.britishcouncil.org.au