Chartwell Trust Art Writing Prize

The Adam Art Gallery is delighted to annouce that Sharon Taylor-Offord is the winner of the Chartwell Trust Student Art Writing Prize 2011. The award was presented at the opening of Shadowgraphs: Photographic Portraits of Len Lye where the judges commented:

This year’s winner is Sharon Taylor-Offord, whose essay takes a work of art from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection that has received little attention, and makes a virtue of its lack of notoriety. Her essay discusses George Kojis’ un-named sculpture – a group of three ceramic pillars, which was previously sited in the University quad and now overlooks the city – in an exploration of the intimacy of place and of medium. The work’s trajectory from clay to sculpture, and from quad to hill, is contained within a framing discussion of the significance of studio pottery work in New Zealand in the 1970s, and for the University’s art collection practices more generally. The essay is economical in style, but resonant in its impact. We had the sense, in reading it, of leaning up against the pillars in their new spot on the hill, and of the ways in which art works of this kind, in particular, exist in conversation with the place in which they stand. The result is an elegant, and focused consideration of the ways in which art can interact with the changing world around it.

ELIGIBILITY
The prize is open to all Victoria University of Wellington students studying Art History, Classics, Religious Studies, Museum and Heritage Studies, English, Film, Theatre, Media Studies and Music.

GUIDELINES/CRITERIA
Entries should be in the form of a review or essay addressing an exhibition at the Adam Art Gallery or a work from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection.
• Submissions should be no more than 1,500 words.
• Texts should be clearly labelled with author’s name, contact details, course of study and student ID.
• Texts must be submitted in both hard copy form (A4, single sided and 1.5 spaced) and in Microsoft Word format.

DEADLINE
Entries for the 2012 award will open in March 2012.

Entries should be sent to:
The Chartwell Trust Student Art Writing Prize
c/- Adam Art Gallery
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington 6140

PRIZE
The winning entry will receive the cash prize of $500 and have their essay published on the Adam Art Gallery website.