All Media: The June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism
The June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism recognises a significant contribution to arts journalism. It encompasses both shortform news and feature-length work across all media formats, and excellence in the reporting on or analysis of arts issues. This may include profiles of artists, features, breaking news, investigations and the examination of the creative arena.
Judges will give special regard to impact, incisiveness, technique, creativity, public benefit, the craft of storytelling and the breadth of research.
Work entered may relate to any aspect of the creative or performing arts. The word ‘arts’ is to be interpreted broadly so it can include, for example, journalism and criticism covering radio and television, music, photography, architecture, film, food and wine, literature, visual arts, performing arts and related industries.
Through the support of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Hantomeli Foundation, both the winner of the June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism and the winner of the Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism will receive $5000 in prize money.
Books are not eligible to be entered into the Arts Prizes. These should be entered into the Walkley Book Award.
Entries in this category must be a single piece of work or a series of no more than three related pieces.
Each entry to the Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism is judged on how well it responds to:
- the category description; and
- judging criteria.
For more information on how judging works, including the judging criteria, please refer to the FAQs.
Your entry must comply with the following Terms & Conditions.
Prize Partner
All Media: The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism, managed by the Walkley Foundation
The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism
The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism celebrates the unique contribution of critics to our cultural landscape and the specialist, detailed knowledge they draw on to contextualise works of art.
Criticism includes both reviews responding to the work itself, and deeper criticism placing work in the context of the artist’s oeuvre, specific genres and/or the current social, political or cultural landscape.
Judges will consider critical thinking, balanced, rigorous argument and evaluation, depth of knowledge and ability to contextualise, and engaging, illuminating voices.
Judges will pay particular attention to the entrant’s:
- Knowledge of their given area
- Ability to communicate and connect artistic ideas and practices with general audiences, and/or audiences with specialist knowledge
- Contextualisation of culture – both in terms of when and where works were created, and when and where they are being consumed (i.e. how does work fit into a culture?)
Through the support of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Hantomeli Foundation, both the winner of the June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism and the winner of the Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism will receive $5000 in prize money.
Books are not eligible to be entered into the Arts Prizes. These should be entered into the Walkley Book Award.
Entries in this category must be a single piece or up to three pieces showcasing a body of work. This award is open only to individual entrants.
Each entry to the Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism is judged on how well it responds to:
- the category description; and
- judging criteria.
For more information on how judging works, including the judging criteria, please refer to the FAQs.
Your entry must comply with the following Terms & Conditions.
Supported by:
The prize
Through the support of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Hantomeli Foundation we are thrilled to announce that in 2022, both the winner of the June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism and the winner of the Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism will receive $5000 in prize money.
If you have any further questions, please contact either:
Kym Middleton
kym.middleton@walkleys.com| +61 401 512 583
Entry fee
The cost of entering for each category is $50 per submission, including GST. Entry is free for all MEAA members.
History of the Pascall Prize
The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism has been Australia’s only major award for critical writing about the arts since 1988, when the inaugural prize was presented to David Malouf.
It celebrates the unique contribution of critics to our cultural landscape, and the specialist, detailed knowledge they draw upon to contextualise works of art. The award commemorates the flamboyant journalist and critic Geraldine Pascall, who worked for The Australian from 1970 until her sudden death in 1983.
The prize continues to reward engaging and illuminating voices, both new and established, whose work demonstrates critical thinking, eschews preconceptions, and which shows a balanced and considered treatment of the subject at hand.
The Pascall’s past winners include Roger Covell, Andrew Ford, Bruce Elder and Robert Forster (music), Sandra Hall, Julie Rigg, Andrew Martin, Noel Purdon, Paul Byrnes and Evan Williams (film), Robert Nelson and Joanna Mendelssohn (art), Alison Croggon and John McCallum (theatre), Elizabeth Farrelly (built environment), Mark Mordue, James Bradley, Gerard Windsor, Geordie Williamson, Kerryn Goldsworthy, James Ley, Marion Halligan, Andrew Riemer and Peter Craven (books and literature), the late Alan Saunders (gastronomy) and Kate Hennessy.
2022 winner:
June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism
Supported by Meta and Copyright Agency
Chip Le Grand, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, “Rogue Gallery: Tristian Koenig and the case of the missing artworks” “Top global dealer among victims of art rogue” and “Twiggy steps in to help artist “fleeced” by gallery owner”
The judges said, “Chip Le Grand’s exhaustively researched and superbly written series of stories lifted the lid on an unregulated and unexamined corner of the contemporary art world, reuniting emerging and vulnerable artists with lost works, and giving impetus to multiple legal actions against a prominent gallerist. Investigative journalism at its best, it was also a riveting read.”
The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism
Supported by the Hantomeli Foundation and administered by the Walkley Foundation
2022 winner
Sarah Krasnostein, The Saturday Paper, “Solos” “Alone” and “Katla
The judges said, “In the time of Covid, Sarah Krasnostein explored the artistic possibilities of television, as it met our desires for distraction and connection. She evoked new dramatic landscapes, as well as cultural change. There was depth of reference, a sense of formal advance, dry wit, and emotional openness.”
