The A.M.E Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize is awarded to Australian artists who have demonstrated talent and achievement in traditional styles. It encourages, supports and advances classical training of emerging artists (in their early to mid-career) at any stage of life, who are pursuing the study and practice of traditional art and want to study the works of old masters. 

Alice Marian Ellen Bale (1875–1955) was known as one of Australia’s pre-eminent flower and still life painters of the early 20th century. She established the A.M.E Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize through her will to support Australian artists in perpetuity. The judging panel is comprised of members of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society Inc who assist Perpetual Trustee Company Limited — a part of the Perpetual Group — as the trustee of The Alice Marian Ellen Bale Art Foundation Trust, in awarding the scholarship and prize.