This award was established in 2022 to honour Janet Mansfield, OAM (19 August 1934 – 4 February 2013). Janet was an Australian potter known for her salt glazed works, her work as a publisher, an author and with the International Academy of Ceramics; and as the founder of the clay festival at Gulgong, NSW. She trained at the National Art School in Sydney in 1964–65, and studied salt glazing in Japan. 

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Janet moved with her family to Gulgong, NSW  in 1977, establishing an anagama wood-fired kiln and producing salt-glazed ware using local clay. She held more than 35 solo exhibitions in Australia and internationally, including in Japan and New Zealand, and numerous group exhibitions in many countries. She established and ran the Ceramic Art Gallery in Paddington, Sydney.
 

Janet was also an editor of Pottery in Australia (now called Journal of Australian Ceramics) from 1976 to 1989. She later founded her own magazines, first Ceramics: Art and Perception in 1990 and then Ceramics Technical in 1995. Later she founded Mansfield Press, publishing a number of ceramics books. Janet also wrote a number of ceramics books, including Pottery (1986), A collector's guide to modern Australian ceramics (1988), Salt-glaze ceramics: an international perspective (1991), Contemporary ceramic art: in Australia and New Zealand (1995), Ceramics in the environment: an international review (2005). In addition she edited a number of directories and guides for ceramicists.

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From 1981 Janet was a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, and was then president from 2006 to 2012. She organised nine triennial international ceramic events in her home town of Gulgong, including Clay Gulong, which continues to be held biannually and is organised by her family. 

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Janet was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1987. Her work is represented in museum collections around the world, including the Australian National Gallery, and museums in the United States, Hungary, Japan, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and China