Open call: JAS x C& Critical Writing Workshop

Jamaica Art Society (JAS) and Contemporary And (C&) to facilitate a three-day Critical Writing Workshop for emerging art critics based in Kingston, Jamaica. It will take place at The National Gallery of Jamaica, 12 Ocean Boulevard, Block C, Kingston Mall, Downtown, Kingston, from Thursday, April 11 – Saturday, April 13, 2024.

The invitation is open to art writers in the early stages of their career.

The JAS x C& Critical Writing Workshop aims to

• Facilitate the circulation of knowledge and experience among participants.
• Discuss arts reporting and critical writing practice
• Provide the tools of how to write reviews, comments and essays within a given timeframe.
• Mediate how to pitch topics to different media platforms.
• Give insights into the processes of editing.
• Link participants to a network of arts journalists contributing to C& platform with the possibility of publishing on C& magazine and C& América Latina magazine and other outlets.

Deadline for submission: 11 March 2024

Workshop Tutors

SEPH RODNEY, PhD, is a former senior critic and opinion editor for Hyperallergic. He has written for the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and other publications. He is featured on the podcast The American Age. His book, The Personalization of the Museum Visit, was published by Routledge in 2019. In 2020 he won the Rabkin Arts Journalism Prize. In 2022 he won the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.Seph Rodney, PhD, is a former senior critic and opinion editor for Hyperallergic. He has written for the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and other publications. He is featured on the podcast The American Age.

ANNIE PAUL is editor-in-chief of the online magazine of writing, PREE (preelit.com), and was the 2023 Lakes Writer-in-Residence at Smith College (Massachusetts). She is on the board of the National Gallery of Jamaica and has published extensively on art and culture. In 2020 she published a biography of Stuart Hall in UWI Press’s Caribbean Biography Series.

A founding editor of the journal Small Axe, she has been published in international journals and magazines such as Newsweek International, the Guardian (UK), Chimurenga, The Caravan (India), Slavery & Abolition, Art Journal, South Atlantic Quarterly, Wasafiri, Callaloo, and Bomb and a range of art books and catalogues such as the Brooklyn Museum’s Infinite Island and Documenta11’s Creolite and Creolization. Paul is author of the blog Active Voice (anniepaul.net). You can follow her on Twitter @anniepaul.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit a CV indicating emergency contacts, a one-page letter of motivation and/or a writing sample (1000 words max.) to info@contemporaryand.com 
A maximum of 20 applicants will be accepted.

Eligibility
The participants should:

• Have first journalistic/writing experiences in the cultural field. Senior writers with long-term experience will not be accepted.
• Be interested in a focus on visual arts.
• Be fluent in written and spoken English.

About Contemporary And

Contemporary And (C&) is a dynamic platform for reflecting and connecting ideas and discourses on contemporary visual arts. Contemporary And América Latina Magazine (C&AL) is a dynamic, critical art magazine focusing on Afro and Indigenous perspectives that connect Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Marny Garcia Mommertz, Managing Editor of C& AL will be present during the workshop.

About Jamaica Art Society

Jamaica Art Society is an international membership organization and advocacy organization dedicated to the amplification and preservation of Jamaican visual arts history and to the support of its future leaders.