An exciting new exhibition at James Cook University of cutting-edge media artwork from around the world has won a Townsville City Council Arts Award in the Visual Arts Exhibition category.

The small gallery team at the eMerge Media Space, part of the School of Creative Arts complex at JCU’s Townsville campus, put the exhibition, titled Screengrab, together.

eMerge Media Space team member Elly Murrell said the exhibition, which obviously grabbed the attention of this year’s judging panel, was a coup for Townsville.

“We are really proud to be recognised for this award as a lot of hard work goes into putting these shows on, with our limited resources,” Ms Murrell said.

“Screengrab is an annual exhibition for JCU and we look forward to getting a good visitor response again this year.”

Council's Lifestyle and Community Development chair, Cr Jenny Lane, said the extra categories recognised the flourishing state of arts in Townsville.

“We had a record number of nominations this year – 163 in total,” she said, “and the calibre of nominations was extremely high. We had to make some very tough choices.”

The Townsville City Council Arts Awards recognises those who have made a significant contribution to the cultural life of this city.

Categories included visual arts individual, visual arts exhibition, writing, theatre, dance, film and multi-media, music, event/festival, production of the year, limelight award, technical, and outstanding performance by an individual.

This year’s awards were expanded to take in an additional four categories: Outstanding Performance by an Individual, Regional Arts Development Fund, Technical Exhibition and Visual Arts Exhibition.

Screengrab will be showing at the eMerge Media Space at the School of Creative Arts from 8 October to the 19 November this year.