2025 Regional Women’s Bursary Recipient: Laura Baker
1 December 2025
Regional Arts NSW and the participants of the 2024 Work of Art program are pleased to announce that the 2025 Regional Women’s Bursary has been awarded to Laura Baker.
Laura is an Australian visual artist working in the medium of paper cutting and was born in the Central West region of NSW. After completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at UNSW Art & Design, she spent several years living in Sydney and Melbourne, working in the book industry. She has since completed post-graduate studies in Arts & Cultural Management and has moved back to her hometown, Blayney NSW.
Laura’s process involves ‘drawing’ with a blade by cutting unmarked paper using surgical tools, exploring the qualities, detail, and shape of the Australian landscape.
Describing her practice, she states, “My creative practice sits at the intersection of papercutting, language, and archives. I work with single sheets of paper, cut by hand into intricate lace-like forms that explore how stories, memory, and care are held and transmitted. Each work is a meditation on time and labour, shaped by slow processes of cutting, collecting, and noticing.”
“Across all my work runs a quiet persistence: to notice the overlooked, and to transform the fleeting moments of daily life into works that hold presence and memory.”
Rocks. Sticks. A pom pom. A piece of broken blue plastic. An old and torn collectors card from a Woolies campaign. Treasures. The collection of a six year old.
Words. Phrases. Sentences and thoughts. Lines and lines of ink on paper. A song lyric. A quote. Some notes on CPR. Treasures. The collection of a mother.
The Regional Women’s Bursary is funding a new project, where the artist will explore motherhood and archives as acts of collecting and care. This is a collaborative project, with the artist hosting two community gatherings with an open call for participation. Mothers and children are invited to bring and share their collections of words, rocks, sticks, and other small treasures, and to contribute to a shared collective artwork.
“The benefits are both personal and collective: to create a space where creativity, motherhood, and community intersect; to invite play and collaboration; and to celebrate the quiet, everyday acts of collecting and remembering that shape our lives.”
The 2025 Regional Women’s Bursary is a gift from the cohort of women who participated in Regional Arts NSW’s 2023-24 Work of Art (WoA) project that supported regional women to grow their creative business. The funds were raised in an auction selling artwork and services by these women, and they collectively decided to grant this one-off bursary as an expression of their gratitude for the friendships they made in the program and their shared understanding of the need for support for female artists in regional NSW.
On receiving the bursary, Laura said, “Receiving this bursary is an honour, and it marks the beginning of a project that has been quietly forming throughout my six years of motherhood. I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring it to life with other mothers and families, to gather the small treasures, words, and moments that often slip by unnoticed. It is a privilege to give voice to these intimate, everyday stories and to celebrate the profound creativity that unfolds in the midst of care.”
The assessors noted the lovely concept and the uniqueness of Laura’s proposal. They also acknowledged the strong community engagement the project would provide and expect this project to have a significant, empowering impact on the people involved.
Regional Arts CEO, Dr Tracey Callinan, congratulates Laura and thanks the WoA Women for their generosity, “We were overwhelmed by the number of high calibre applications we received for the Regional Women’s Bursary and are extremely grateful to all of the women who applied and to the WOA women for their gift. Being a part of Work of Art was a privilege, and it is wonderful to see the relationships the women formed result in giving back to another deserving female, regional artist. Laura is extremely deserving of this award, and we look forward to seeing her project come to fruition.”
RANSW and the assessment panel for the Regional Women’s Bursary would also like to commend Hiromi Matsuoka and Sarah Crawford, who also presented thoughtful projects, which displayed exemplary creative businesses and artistic practices from regional women in NSW.
You can learn more about RANSW’s 2023-24 program, Work of Art, here.
Image: Laura Baker, “Watch Your Step”, 2023. Hand cut paper, resin. Photo courtesy of the artist.
ENQUIRES
For any enquiries please contact:
Beatrice Waller
Operations and Engagement Officer, RANSW
Phone: 02 9270 2500
Email: comms@regionalartsnsw.com.au