The popular arts event presented along the two-km Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk in Sydney failed to secure an exemption from the New South Wales (NSW) health department to go ahead this year.
"The exhibition was not granted an exemption by NSW Health and will be postponed and hopefully open for the viewing public in early 2021," the exhibition's organizers said in a statement on Wednesday.
However, they said a large sculpture will be placed on the end of the south Bondi headland in mid-November "as a beacon of hope for the future."
Over 100 international and Australian artists, collectively spending around 1.5 million to 1.8 million Australian dollars (1.1 million to 1.3 million U.S. dollars) to create and freight their artworks for this year's exhibition, will remain in the line-up when the exhibition returns in 2021.
In the meantime, a range of artists will visit primary and early secondary schools across Sydney and regional NSW, including some of the areas worst affected by the bushfires, to host sculpture making workshops as part of a new outreach program.
Sculpture by the Sea was first staged in Bondi Beach in 1997 as a one-day exhibition. Since then, the event has grown to become a major tourist drawcard, attracting approximately 450,000 visitors every year over three weeks.
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