Ken Painter industry scholarship awarded

Rhett Winterton (right) is the first person to receive the Ad School Ken Painter Scholarship, honouring the late Perth industry stalwart Ken Painter. Awarded by The Communications Council, the scholarship grants Rhett participation in the 11 week AdSchool ‘Foundation Course’ which is designed to help newcomers to the industry develop an understanding of key industry areas and best practice methods in how to brief, critique and present effectively and confidently.

“We are delighted to announce the first recipient of the ‘Ken Painter Scholarship'”, said Alan Taylor (left), Chairman of The Communications Council WA committee, “When WA’s advertising community came together to fund this scholarship, it was meant to perpetuate Ken’s name and legacy and to instil in the next generation of practitioners the values Ken lived by for his entire career. Rhett will be the first to honour his legacy.”

“I feel very humbled to be the first recipient of such a great tribute to a person who gave 60 years of his life to advertising. If I go on and show half of the commitment, integrity and ethics in my work, I believe I will have done a darn good job,” said Winterton.

He intends to complete AdSchool’s Foundation course with the endeavour of joining one of WA’s agencies. The course starts this week.

Ken Painter passed away in late 2009 after a short battle with cancer, having dedicated his life to the industry, including as coordinator of AdSchool in WA and the former Advertising Federation Australia (now The Communications Council’s) Graduate Trainee Program. The scholarship will be awarded again in 2012.