Chartwell Art Writing Prize

Chartwell began the Chartwell Trust Student Art Writing Prize in November 2001 in association with the Adam Art Gallery and the University of Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand. Founded to give opportunity to students throughout the University departments and to raise the awareness of the importance of good quality writing on the visual arts, the award entries are assessed by three judges including two University staff and one external assessor.

The Chartwell Trust Student Art Writing Prize is managed by the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University. For further information and submission guidelines, please contact Adam Art Gallery tel: (+64 4) 463 5229 or email: adam-art-gallery@vuw.ac.nz

2006

Congratulations to the winners of the 2006 award. Receiving the highest number of entries to date and reflecting on the strength and quality of the applications, the prize was awarded to two entrants, Amy Howden-Chapman and Hamish Clayton. The judges were Ray Spiteri, Lecturer in Art History; Mark Amery, Director Playmarket and regular arts writer; and Sophie McIntyre, as Director of the Adam Art Gallery in 2006.

Amy is an Honours student in Art History and is a graduate of Bill Manhire's Master of Creative Writing course in Wellington. She wrote an exhibition review focussing on Archiving Fever at the Adam Art Gallery.

Read her essay by clicking here.

2005

Congratulations to the winner of the 2005 Writing Award. The winning entry was by Callum M. Strong, who is studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Art History. His writing is titled A Conversation with 'The Chain' and is in response to the Adam Art Gallery exhibition Still Present from 2005.

A conversation with 'The Chain' in which the author imagines a dialogue with the 31 photographs of pairs.

A1. What do you mean that I'm a photograph in the Adam Art Gallery? Can't you see we're prisoners in cells here, cells I tell you!

A2. I would have thought you'd remembered by now, I explained to you in London, Southhampton, Daytona, Fukuoka, even at the 25th Sao Paulo Biennial and back home in Taipei- we are the exhibition 'The Chain'. Don't you remember Chien-Chi Chang coming to take our picture? We had to stay still, but you kept yanking on our chain. Now look at you, you've gone all blurry!

Read the essay in full by clicking here.

And congratulations also to Renee Gerlich who was the runner up. She also writes about the Adam Art Gallery exhibition Still Present from 2005. You can read her full essay by clicking here.

2003

In 2003, the judging panel included Jenny Harper: Head of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, VUW, Dr Geoff Miles: Senior Lecturer, English, VUW and Sophie McIntyre: Director, Adam Art Gallery, VUW.

Two winners were selected:

Kristelle Plimmer, an Art History student who wrote an essay on the recent Adam Art Gallery exhibitions Pe'a: Photographs by Mark Adams and Lisa Taouma's video work Measina Samoa: Stories of the Malu.

Tatau: welcome to their world
Kristelle Plimmer

Stepping into the Adam Art Gallery on a Thursday afternoon during the semester break was a paradoxical experience that was furthered by the art on view. Empty spaces where one's footsteps echoed in the silence enhanced the sense of dislocation evident in the work...more

Dougal McNeill, an English Literature student, who wrote about McCahon's Gate 3, which is in the foyer of the Adam Art Gallery.

Gate III, Colin McCahon, 1970
Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington

It is, I think, the sheer, unapologetic pomposity of McCahon that delights me: I AM in gigantic, tortured and torturous white and stern black is something quite hard to miss, and most of us would feel a little self-conscious demanding recognition of something so obvious. It's hard to avoid that agonized, high modernist sense of precariousness and uncertainty written into the very letter of the canvas... more

2001

In 2001 the winner was Philip Steer, then a fourth year undergraduate studying for a BA in English Literature and a BSc in Chemistry.

Public Visions and Private Universes:
Parallel Worlds and the Place of Artistic Vision

If there is no vision, the people perish
- Proverbs 29:18

It feels like nothing matters in our private universe
- Neil Finn, ‘Private Universe’

Art has a prophetic nature because it allows a society to see itself afresh. This is particularly the case with photography and associated media, in their associations with realism. This prophetic voice, however, can be passive or active: merely reflecting that society, or challenging its values and assumptions. more......