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Graphic with the text: State Cultural Treasures Awards 2024. nominations now open.
The Western Australian State Cultural Treasures Awards (formerly State Living Treasures Awards) were inaugurated in 1998 to acknowledge outstanding lifelong contributions of senior Western Australian artists to their art form and the community. Further rounds of artists were honoured as State Cultural Treasures with awards in 2004, 2015 and 2022.
 

The awards acknowledge the ability of artists to engage, move, involve and entertain audiences. They honour the skill, imagination and originality of the artist.  

Nominations for the 2024 awards close 5pm Wednesday 7 August.

Meet Terri, one of our 2022 State Cultural Treasures

Portrait photograph of Terri Charlesworth 

Photograph by Jarrad Seng

"I’ve had a wonderful life: I’ve been a dancer, then a dance teacher, a choreographer and I’ve loved every moment of it…[dance is] something very innate,  [I] just love the movement.. After all we did grow in [our] mother’s womb with the heartbeat: One-two-three. One-two-three. One-two-three..." — Terri Charlesworth OAM

At just six years of age, Terri Charlesworth knew she wanted to be a dancer.

Little did she know that when the Second World War broke out, Madame Kira Bousloff of the Ballet Russes, one of the world’s greatest dance companies, would become stranded in Australia.

In 1952, Madame Bousloff invited Terri to join the West Australian Ballet company as one of its inaugural dancers.

Terri went on to become its principal ballerina and, later, Assistant Director. She then established her own school of ballet and co-founded and directed the Western Australian Graduate College of Dance.

Her dedication and deep love of her craft has secured a bright future for many generations of Western Australian dancers to come. 

Learn more about the 2022 recipients


Find out more or start your nomination for the State Cultural Treasures Awards 2024

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Page reviewed 10 June 2025