Winning means freedom from day jobs

''Awards are definitely an integral part of the art world's ecology; always have been, always will be,'' says Michael Fitzgerald, managing editor of Art & Australia, which runs its own acquisitive award that also promotes emerging artists on the magazine cover. ''They are important promotional tools for galleries and their artists and it is perhaps best to see them in this light rather than in terms of the more pathological or competitive aspects of prize-giving, which can otherwise be anathema to the art world.''

But it is this competitive aspect that grabs headlines and is meant to catapult young artists' careers into orbit. Dr Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios recently convened a discussion on art's relationship to money that features a keynote address from controversial Archibald and Wynne winner Sam Leach. According to her research, while prizes provide useful promotional tools for art galleries, award wins make no difference to resale values in the long-haul secondary market. ''The point is,'' she says, ''without a resale market, which is predominantly the auction market, buying an artist's work is not an attractive option for a collector.''