Art Writing Workshop—a partnership between the Arts Writers Grant Program and the International Art Critics Association/USA Section (AICA/USA)—gives practicing writers the opportunity to strengthen their work through one-on-one email and phone consultations with leading art critics.

Focusing on the craft of writing, the workshop will use participants’ writing samples as a springboard for an in-depth consideration of such issues as voice, prose style, organizational structure, and argumentation. Ten applicants are chosen each year to participate.

The possibility of participating in the Art Writing Workshop is available to all eligible applicants to the Arts Writers Grant Program who are not selected to advance to the final panel review phase of the grant selection process.

All eligible applicants to the Arts Writers Grant Program who wish to hone their skills and develop compelling prose that can describe and question, render complex ideas clearly, and situate art works within their broader contexts are appropriate candidates for the Art Writing Workshop.

Applicants can indicate their interest in being considered for the Art Writing Workshop by checking the relevant box on the online application form and stating their goals for the workshop experience. (By checking this box, applicants agree to allow their applications and writing samples to be reviewed by the AICA senior critics who are participating in the Art Writing Workshop.) Workshop participants will be selected by the critics with whom they will be working, drawing on recommendations made by the grant program’s director, the workshop director, and application evaluators, who will identify those interested applicants most likely to benefit from participation in the workshop.

Expressing an interest in the Art Writing Workshop in no way reduces—or enhances—an applicant’s chances of being chosen to advance to the final panel review phase of the selection process or of receiving a grant.

Art Writing Workshop Program Director

Amei Wallach is an art critic and filmmaker. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, Art in America, ARTnews, the Nation, Vanity Fair, and Smithsonian. She was on-air arts essayist for the PBS Newshour and chief art critic for Newsday. Her film, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here, debuted at Film Forum in New York and is currently in international release. With the late Marion Cajori, she co-directed the 2008 film portrait, Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine. She has served as guest editor for the Brooklyn Rail, contributed to a dozen books, was visiting critic at Syracuse University, and organizes panels internationally. She served two terms as president of AICA/USA, the International Art Critics Association, and currently organizes its annual Distinguished Critic Lecture in cooperation with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. In the interest of international artistic cross-pollination and exchange, she serves on the board of CEC ArtsLink.