For some time now there has been an increasing tendency among daily and weekly papers to minimize their cultural pages. Arts and culture reports are more and more limited to professional journals and the blogosphere. What are the underlying reasons the cultural pages are being marginalized? Detailed reflections on exhibitions seem to be out of fashion. Newspapers do attempt to ‘freshen up’ culture and arts reports by moving them to the media & entertainment sections instead. Is this simply a reflection of current consumer culture or rather a general lack of interest in current art production? How do these trends relate to what is actually being written about art? Is the critic himself perhaps to blame for his own marginalization and what role could he play to stimulate the presence of art criticism in the general media, in order to promote art in society at large?
On Friday May 28, Art Amsterdam will host a lively conversation between Wouter van Hillaert (Freelance podium critic, Initiator Press for More), Ronald Ockhuysen (Het Parool, Chief of Art and Media), Xandra Schutte (de Groene Amsterdammer, Chief Editor), Barbara Visser (Artist), moderated by Rineke Kraaij (program maker and moderator) about the current status of art criticism.
With this event the second Prize for Young Dutch Art Criticism will be launched and its jury will be announced. Simultaneously www.jongekunstkritiek.net, a renewed website that aims to provide a platform for the discussion of art criticism, will be launched.
The Prize for Young Dutch Art Criticism is an initiative of de Appel arts centre, the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (known as Fonds BKVB) and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, in cooperation with the Flemish-Dutch House deBuren.