Garth Barnett’s extraordinary legacy lives on through the achievements of the many UTS Design, Architecture and Building students who have won a prize or scholarship in his name.
Claire Perini, 2016 Garth Barnett Prize for Excellence in Design recipient.
When acclaimed interior designer Garth Barnett passed away in 2015, his close friends established the Garth Barnett Scholarship Trust in his memory. “Garth wanted to do something for the young,” says Sue Quinn, one of Garth’s close friends and a Trustee. “This was his way of giving back to an industry that he truly loved.”
Every year, the Garth Barnett Trust grants six scholarships valued between $15,000 and $24,000 to support UTS design students facing education disadvantage. Additionally, the Garth Barnett Prize for Excellence in Design awards a $20,000 first prize and two $2,500 runner-up prizes for students with an exemplary portfolio of interior design work. In special instances, the runner-up prize money is increased substantially.
Since 2016, the Garth Barnett Trust has generously given over $475,000 towards UTS scholarships and prizes – changing the lives of over 83 students like Claire and Michael.
Hello, my name is sue Quinn and I am a trustee of the Garth Barnett Trust and today I'm going to talk a little bit about Garth and the Trust and why we set it up.
I think Garth was like an elder brother to me so when he asked in his Will to set up a trust for students and he specifically said at UTS and this is because a lot of students from UTS did come through his work that we set this trust up and the thing about Garth is that he was very, very passionate about what he did, he loved what he did and he never stopped working.
He travelled a lot to Europe, especially because he loved European architecture and especially Palladio, he was his favourite architect and we would always when in Rome or Florence or wherever we were, we would always go and have a look at places that Palladio had designed and he always with his design thought of the villa, thought of the Palladio because of the wonderful clean lines and also because of the wonderful light.
Garth approached design with whatever people wanted really but he was quite traditional but he always had that little bit of modern that came in whether it came in the colour or came in an artefact, he would always find something just a little bit different.
Garth wanted to do something for the young. He very much enjoyed having younger people in his business and in his partnership that he had and he enjoyed mentoring. He always felt that the young gave him an awful lot of energy to carry on and they came with very bright ideas too and so he felt that he had never ever had a formal education, so he wanted to give back and he wanted to give those that could not probably afford or those who had troubles or whatever the or disadvantages of gaining a place at university, he wanted to help them financially and this was his way of giving back to an industry which he had really been passionate and loved.
Being a trustee, I love it when we do all our interviews. I want to give awards to everybody and I want to give bursaries to everybody but I know we can't. What do I look? I just look for somebody who is passionate about doing this job and who wants to do it.
Ultimately, I think for me and also for Garth the most wonderful thing about the scholarship is the camaraderie ship and you know it's the fact that you can stick together and I love learning what people are doing later on and how they're getting on at university and I've really enjoyed the letters that I have received and I am really honoured to be a trustee and I'm honoured to carry on Garth's name and I hope it will go on for many, many years and just to say thank you. Thank you to all of you.
Building confidence
Looking back on her time at UTS, Claire Perini says they were some of the happiest days of her life. But she admits that she was a nervous student at first. “I was 23 when I started at UTS,” says Claire. “My nerves almost got the better of me in my first semester.”
In 2016, her talent was noticed by one of her lecturers, who encouraged her to apply for the inaugural Garth Barnett Prize for Excellence in Design. Claire put together a portfolio of works, and was awarded first runner-up.
The confidence it gave me was like nothing else.
Claire Perini, 2016 Garth Barnett Prize for Excellence in Design recipient
“It was my first time ever receiving an award and winning helped build my confidence,” says Claire. “I put the prize money towards my projects in my final semester, because I needed to have a really strong portfolio to present to employers when I finished my degree.”
I absolutely love my time at UTS it was some of my happiest memories, I have had a really stellar bunch of students to work with as well I was quite lucky that we had quite a few mature age students as well in my year so it was kind of like 10 of us as well that we kind of bounced ideas off. We actually had a studio space outside of UTS that we kind of work together in so we will go study independently everyday and kind of go from seven till seven and just go and sit and do 12 hours of solid work when we weren’t at university, which is also really kind of lovely kind of memories from outside of university but also during my university time.
So I first learnt about the Garth Barnett prize, it was kind of the hype in DAB it was the first year it was offered to students and I was approached by one of my lecturers to apply for the grant.
It was very exciting. I actually had never won anything before in my life, so it was hte first time of receiving an award and as I mentioned I used to have really bad anxiety and get worried about speaking in public and all these things which again UTS helped me with greatly because of presentations and all of those things. So I think when it came to it, it felt like it was a hurdle and I kind of finally leaped over it by receiving the prize. It was kind of that validation for me that I could do it and everything and all the hard work that I had been doing was kind of amounting to something or working towards something, so that was amazing.
For me it was really that confidence that the prize gave me as well, aside from the money which was amazing and help me very much, especially in the last semester, just being able to afford - I very much put the money towards my projects, you know model making and printing beautifully and all of those things cause I wanted to have a strong body of work, for my last semester particularly, so that was you know really beneficial for that and for that confidence that it gave me was just really like nothing else. I kind of got a kick in my stride, I could public speak alot easier and I really felt the joy that came from it.
I think his own personal journey is kind of quite inspirational, again from learning, he was not formally trained or anything, he kind of just followed his instincts and continued to grow in the industry, by you know doing a great job and I think that is really highly inspirational and something, I have always been one of those people that don’t necessarily wait for things to approach me, you know I go out and make things happen myself, you like for instances starting my own business and doing all those things. I’ve always, so I think that is kind of inspirational in that sense and it just shows you just how far you go when you follow your own instincts and yeah.
My advice if you are thinking about it. Do it because I think life is too short to be comfortable. I think you learn so much more from taking risks and you just the whole world opens up to you when you are at university.
Empowering achievement
Michael Bennett’s path to UTS was also unconventional. Despite already having a Bachelor of Music under his belt, and having finished high school more than a decade earlier, he was determined to follow his dream of becoming an architect by beginning his Bachelor of Design in Architecture.
He had been balancing work and study for two years when he discovered he and his wife had a baby on the way. “When my son was born, we went from a double income to a single income,” says Michael. “I was working as a musician, but also as an architectural assistant while studying in my third year.”
When Michael was approached to apply for the Garth Barnett Prize for Excellence in Design in 2017, he seized the opportunity. “I had read a lot about Garth Barnett, and felt that I was there for a reason. My son was eight weeks old at the time, and I’d put in so much hard work,” says Michael.
When he found out that he had not only been awarded first runner-up, but that the judges had decided to increase his prize winnings to $10,000, he called his wife to tell her the happy news. “I think we both just cried,” says Michael. “With such significant changes in our lives, everything had been so hard up until then.”
Financially, the prize made an incredible difference to Michael’s life – allowing him to move his family into a bigger home. But it was life-changing in more ways than one. “It was one of the main reasons I decided to continue with my Masters,” he says. “It gave me more than just financial backing, it gave me confidence.”
Pictured (left to right): Bassam Aflak, Garth Barnett Trustee, Taksil Dias, Director Engagement, Professor Elizabeth Mossop, Dean of the UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.