Rachel Ward at The 2003 Packing Room Prize

The Archibald Prize for portraiture is one of Australia's oldest and best-known visual arts awards. The prize of $35,000 and the publicity and recognition the prize generates for the winning painter encourages painters entering the competition to stretch their skills.

The Archibald Prize competition, and each year's winning entries, are subjects of great public interest. The competition encourages discussion about painting, portraiture, and larger questions about art and definitions of quality, as few other art prizes do.
The Archibald Prize is now in its 84th year (2004).

The inclusion of a People's Choice Award in 1988 has subsequently ensured wide engagement by the public in the prize and the related Archibald exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales every year. The winning artist and the randomly selected voter (drawn from the collected votes for the winning artist) each received prize money of $2500.

One quirky aspect of the Archibald competition is the Packing Room Prize, awarded by the workers behind the scenes who receive, unpack and hang all the entries. First awarded in 1991, the Packing Room Prize is adjudicated by the gallery's Storeman, Steve Peters - who continues to claim his right to 51 per cent of the votes. This prize is traditionally awarded a couple of days before the Archibald, after the hanging of the finalists.

In 2003, the highly-coveted Packing Room Prize of $500 was awarded to Sydney artist Jan Williamson for her portrait of Rachel Ward.