KARABAR High teacher and art lover Sueanne Matthews will be heading to Taiwan to soak up some of the world's greatest contemporary art after winning a $10,000 NSW Premier's Teacher scholarship.
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Mrs Matthews was one of only 22 teachers around the state to win a scholarship out of over 300 applicants, and took out the Premier's Contemporary Asian Art category.
And as the head teacher-administration at Karabar Distance Education Centre, Mrs Matthews will be able to filter down her first-hand knowledge of Taiwanese art to hundreds of students at Karabar High and across the state.
"I was beyond excited," Mrs Matthews said of the scholarship win. "It's not every day someone gives you $10,000!"
The scholarship will go towards funding a trip to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum next January to coincide with the Taipei Biennial, an arts extravaganza that attracts international visual and contemporary artists from across the globe, curated by French artist Nicolas Bourriaud.
It will give Mrs Matthews the opportunity to learn from the cutting edge of contemporary art, and then filter that knowledge down to her students.
"It's not mediated through text books or other people's writing; it's straight from the galleries," she said.
"I've arranged interviews with a range of artists, galleries and curators and creative director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
"I then have two days in Brisbane where I'll be interviewing education staff at the gallery of modern art who host the Asian Pacific Triennial every three years, and it's on again in Brisbane in 2015.
"Then I'll be working with teachers in the Southern Tablelands, Monaro and Queanbeyan regions, and we'll be looking at ways to develop it into learning activities for students, so expanding our student's knowledge of contemporary art practice."
And Mrs Matthews will also be furiously photographing and documenting her trip overseas and uploading it to her blog, so students can follow her progress.
There's currently five distance education centres across the state of NSW, and Karabar High's Centre services students across most of the southern part of the state.
It allows students at other high schools without access to some subjects to supplement their education from a choice of 67 subjects on offer, as well as catering to full-time distance students who can't make it to a school campus due to geographical or health issues. The Distance Education Centre employs 99 teaching staff and 10 admin staff.
