New Art Writing Challenge Philadelphia: New Voices in Art Criticism
In 2015, Philadelphia's independent art community had an opportunity to do something that sounds simple but is surprisingly difficult: write seriously about art.
The New Art Writing Challenge Philadelphia was created by The St.Claire and The Artblog as an open invitation for writers to examine, question, and respond to the city's contemporary art scene. More than 70 submissions were received, revealing just how much energy existed around Philadelphia contemporary art writing.
The project was not simply about selecting a winner. It was about creating space for people who wanted to experiment with the ways art could be discussed, described, criticized, and understood.
What Was the New Art Writing Challenge?
The challenge was organized as a Philadelphia art writing competition focused on contemporary art and the people who engage with it.
Rather than asking writers to follow a rigid formula, the project welcomed different approaches to criticism and cultural writing. Participants could respond to art through essays, reviews, personal reflection, experimental prose, and other forms of writing.
That openness was important because traditional art criticism can sometimes feel unnecessarily formal. The challenge created a space where writers could develop a voice of their own while still taking the subject seriously.
The St.Claire and The Artblog Join Forces
The project became possible through a collaboration between two independent Philadelphia publications. The The St.Claire Artblog New Art Writing Challenge represented a shared interest in strengthening the city's culture of writing about art.
Both publications had already established themselves as important parts of Philadelphia's independent cultural ecosystem. Bringing them together created a broader platform for writers who might otherwise struggle to find an audience.
The judges for the competition included Nell McClister, Abigail Satinsky, and Hrag Vartanian, who reviewed the submissions and helped select the finalists and prize winners.
More Than 70 Submissions
The scale of the response was one of the most encouraging aspects of the project. More than 70 original pieces of writing were submitted.
That number suggests that the appetite for Philadelphia contemporary art criticism was much larger than a small group of established publications could represent on their own.
It also demonstrated that there were many people interested in becoming Philadelphia independent art writers and developing new approaches to discussing exhibitions, artists, ideas, and cultural institutions.
Why Independent Art Criticism Matters
Art criticism serves an important role beyond telling readers whether an exhibition is good or bad. At its best, criticism gives people a language for discussing experiences that are often difficult to describe.
This is especially valuable in a city with a large and diverse contemporary art community. Independent art criticism in Philadelphia can document exhibitions, introduce emerging artists, challenge established ideas, and create conversations that continue long after a show closes.
Independent publications also have the freedom to experiment. A critic can move between personal experience, cultural history, formal analysis, humor, and theory without necessarily conforming to the editorial conventions of a larger newspaper.
New Voices Enter the Conversation
One of the most valuable results of the challenge was the attention it brought to new voices in Philadelphia art criticism.
The finalists represented different approaches to writing and different ways of thinking about contemporary culture. Some entries focused closely on individual artists and exhibitions, while others approached art through social media, personal experience, poetry, fiction, humor, or broader cultural questions.
That diversity is exactly what makes an art-writing community interesting. There is no single correct way to write about contemporary art.
The New Art Writing Challenge Winners
The organizers announced a group of finalists and prize-winning writers whose work would go on to be published through The St.Claire and The Artblog.
Among the featured writers were Peter Crimmins, Danielle Susi, Justin O. Walker, Meredith Sellers, Kellie Rados, Kenneth Nicholson, Ellen Chenoweth, Emma Hicks, Ingrid Pimsner, Jayna Anderson, Loren Hunt, Scott Cooper, Allison Hardt, Kevin Travers, Ulrika Andersson, Mike Jackson, and Suzanne Maruska.
Their work ranged widely in tone and format. Some pieces resembled traditional criticism, while others experimented with poetry, conversation, personal reflection, or unconventional structures.
A Wider Definition of Art Writing
The challenge made an important distinction between art writing and criticism Philadelphia audiences might traditionally associate with newspapers and magazines and a much broader understanding of what critical writing can be.
A writer does not always need to produce a conventional review to say something meaningful about art. A poem can examine an artwork. A fictional conversation can reveal something about an artist's ideas. A personal essay can explain why a particular image or exhibition matters.
This expanded definition makes room for more people to participate in cultural discussion and encourages writers to develop individual styles rather than imitate established critics.
The Importance of Philadelphia’s Art-Writing Community
Philadelphia has a strong tradition of artist-run spaces, independent galleries, experimental exhibitions, and community-based cultural projects. Writing is part of that ecosystem.
Philadelphia contemporary art writing helps connect the work being produced in studios and galleries with a broader audience. It creates records of exhibitions and ideas that might otherwise disappear as soon as a show ends.
It also gives artists something equally important: people who are willing to spend time looking, thinking, and responding to their work.
What the Challenge Was Really About
The organizers' message was ultimately larger than a writing contest. Once the winners were selected, the real challenge was described as continuing to write, respond, investigate, give, and share.
That idea remains particularly relevant to independent cultural publishing. A competition can identify new writers, but a healthy art community needs those writers to continue developing their voices and contributing to the conversation.
The New Art Writing Challenge winners were therefore not simply the end point of the project. They represented a beginning: an opportunity for emerging writers to publish their work, reach new readers, and become part of Philadelphia's larger critical culture.
A Snapshot of Philadelphia’s Cultural Moment
Looking back, the challenge offers a useful snapshot of a particular moment in Philadelphia's art scene. Independent publications were creating new opportunities for writers, artists were experimenting across disciplines, and the internet provided an increasingly accessible platform for cultural discussion.
The competition showed that there was no shortage of people willing to engage with contemporary art. What they needed was a platform.
The story of the challenge is therefore not only about the writers who were selected. It is also about the larger community that made the project meaningful.
The Legacy of the New Art Writing Challenge
The lasting value of the project lies in its encouragement of participation. It demonstrated that criticism can be open, experimental, personal, funny, poetic, and intellectually serious at the same time.
For anyone interested in the history of Philadelphia art writing and criticism, the New Art Writing Challenge remains a useful example of how independent publications can create opportunities for new writers and strengthen the cultural conversation around contemporary art.
More importantly, the project offered a simple invitation: keep writing.
Keep looking. Keep questioning. Keep responding. And keep finding new ways to talk about the art happening around you.