Deadline for Ateneo & The STAR’s Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize set for March 31

MANILA, Philippines - The deadline for submission for the Ateneo Art Awards-Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism, presented in association with The Philippine STAR, is set for March 31.

Any Filipino citizen can participate provided that they do not have a regular column in any broadsheet or magazine. Bloggers, defined as “writers of online journals, websites, or whose written work is published in electronic social media” may join. Employees of the Ateneo Art Gallery and the Kalaw Ledesma Foundation, Inc., whether full-time or part-time, are disqualified. Employees of The Star, with the exception of columnists, may participate including contributors defined as “any person whose written work is published with a byline but not identified as a columnist.”

Interested parties must submit a previously unpublished art critique of one of the exhibitions listed below of no more than 1,000 words. All initial submissions will be pseudonymously presented to the jury, with the actual identities of the writers to be revealed at the completion of the judging process. 

Participants must review either one of these exhibitions:

“The Philippine Contemporary: To Scale the Past and the Possible” at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila

“Trajectories” and “It’s Complicated” at the Lopez Memorial Museum

Visual documentation must be submitted together with the art critiques. Entries must be emailed to puritakalawledesmaprize@gmail.com no later than March 31 at 5 p.m. 

The announcement of the recipient of the inaugural Purita Kalaw Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism will be held during the Ateneo Art Awards ceremony in August 2014 as part of the celebration of Ledesma’s 100th birth anniversary. Please note that copyright of the works of the three shortlisted writers (including the winner) shall be held jointly by the Ateneo Art Gallery and the Kalaw-Ledesma Foundation, Inc.

The jury is composed of Ramon E.S. Lerma, director and chief curator, Ateneo Art Gallery; Millet Mananquil, Lifestyle dditor, The Philippine STAR; Cesare Syjuco, art critic and visual artist; Eileen Legaspi Ramirez, art critic and curator; and Gina Fairley, arts journalist, critic, and curator. 

As one of the main goals of the prize is to get art criticism into the public sphere, the prize is a regular bi-monthly column in The STAR, with an honorarium of P10,000 for each column written by the winner, thus totaling P20,000 per month for 12 months or a total prize of P240,000. The column will be held for a one-year term only from the time that the prize is bestowed. The prize also includes mentorship with an established writer from the faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University.  

To inquire, call Thea Garing of the Ateneo Art Gallery at 426-6488.