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Sculpture by the Sea struggling to survive

Sculpture by the Sea is on life support after mining billionaire Gina Rinehart's company did not continue its sponsorship from last year.

Hancock Prospecting rescued the popular annual exhibition last year with a six-figure sponsorship deal that included a new $50,000 sculpture prize, one of Australia's most lucrative art awards.

"It's a great event for WA and our involvement came about at the last minute last year to bail the event out when a competitor withdrew its support," a Hancock Prospecting spokes-man said.

"We look forward to being involved again in the future.

"Hancock Prospecting has just made a further multimillion- dollar commitment to be the major sponsor of Swimming Australia and is committed to developing a $170 million cancer hospital as a gift for northern Australia."

Sculpture by the Sea founding director David Handley said he had been grateful for the support last year but the failure to secure a principal sponsor and major prize this year had presented some "interesting" funding challenges.

The annual exhibition, which opens tomorrow, costs more than $1 million to stage but has run at a $200,000 loss for two of the past three years.

The not-for-profit organisation that runs the event has had to dig into its $900,000 capital reserve fund to stay afloat.

"Sponsorships come and go from one year to the next," Mr Handley said.

Backed by Alcoa for each of its 11 years, the event has received increased support from Tourism WA, the Australia Council and some private donors.

"But we are still considerably behind where we need to be," Mr Handley said.

"It has not been a good year for corporate sponsorship, so we have our fingers crossed for public donations and sculpture sales with the latter showing early good signs."

Sculpture by the Sea had to sell more than $1.3 million of art to break even, he said.

About 13 per cent of funds come from public donations, some of it from on-site buckets during the exhibition.

More than 220,000 people are expected to take in the State's biggest outdoor art show over the next two weeks.

Almost 70 artists are represented. Among the 31 WA artists are established sculptors such as Tony Jones, Ron Gomboc, Mark Grey-Smith and Tim Macfarlane Reid, who joins the event's Decade Club for his repeated participation.

At the other end of the scale is Rockingham newcomer Paul Stanwick-Wright, who has fashioned a face out of a black shipping container.

One work that made the official catalogue but was a late scratching from the sand was Sydney artist Andrew Hankin's giant frypan, We're Frying Out Here, which deteriorated while in storage.

And several sculptures from Japan have been delayed in Singapore and will not go on display until next week.