The prize is an initiative of de Appel Arts Centre, the Mondriaan Fund and Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art and is meant to stimulate young art critics and increase the media attention for art criticism and journalism of high qualitative standards. In 2012, the biannual prize will be awarded for the third time.
The Prize for Young Dutch Art Criticism was founded four years ago, motivated by the fast-shrinking space for art criticism in the general media. The organizers do not believe art criticism is disappearing completely, but that it is moving increasingly to the professional magazines and the blogosphere. With this award, the initiators make a plea for the preservation of the cultural pages in the press. Nowadays young talents are developing themselves through self-founded initiatives in order to become the art critics and essayists of tomorrow. The Prize for Young Dutch Art Criticism puts them under the limelight and gives them the opportunity to profile themselves on a wider platform.
The Prize for Young Dutch Art Criticism is open to participants up to 35 years of age and will be awarded in the categories Review, Essay and Internet Critique. For all categories a maximum of 3 articles will be nominated to compete for first prize. Pieces (Dutch only) can be submitted digitally until 1 September 2012 via [email protected].
The Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer will publish the winning Essay and the (summarized) jury report. The nominated articles will feature in a special section on the Prize for Young Dutch Art Criticism website with comments from the jury. The winner of the Review category will receive a commission to write a new article in consultation with the editors.
Peter Verhelst (poet, theatre writer and novelist) is chairman of the jury. The other jury members are Alie van Arragon (reader of the Dutch magazine Groene Amsterdammer), Ingrid Commandeur (art critic and board member AICA Holland), Ward Daenen (coordinator opinion- and reader column of the Belgium newspaper De Morgen), Arnoud Holleman (artist/writer), Jan Postma (general editor of daily online magazine hard//hoofd) en Xandra Schutte (general editor of the Groene Amsterdammer).