The St. Claire & Artblog New Art Writing Challenge

The New Art Writing Challenge was created as a collaboration between The St. Claire and The Artblog to encourage writers to experiment with new ways of thinking and writing about art. The project grew out of a shared interest in Philadelphia's creative community and in the many forms that contemporary art writing can take.

Rather than treating art criticism as a fixed format, the challenge invited writers to consider different methods, voices, structures, and perspectives. The goal was not simply to describe an exhibition or explain an artwork, but to create writing that could open unexpected conversations around the work being discussed.

Writing About Art in Philadelphia

Philadelphia has long supported an active community of artists, curators, writers, educators, and independent cultural organizations. The New Art Writing Challenge was designed within this environment, with every submission required to focus on art in Philadelphia.

This emphasis reflected the importance of local criticism to a city's contemporary art scene. Artists and exhibitions need writers who are willing to look closely, ask difficult questions, and document the cultural conversations developing around them.

The challenge therefore became an opportunity to explore Philadelphia art from different perspectives while giving emerging writers a place to develop their voices.

A Different Approach to Art Writing

The competition encouraged writing that went beyond conventional exhibition reviews. Participants were asked to address the art in question while also moving the conversation into unexpected and previously unexplored territory.

This approach recognized that contemporary art can be discussed through many different forms. A short critical response, an extended essay, an experimental piece, or an unconventional interpretation can each reveal something different about an artist or exhibition.

The challenge was intended to foster precisely this kind of variety. Instead of establishing a single model for successful criticism, The St. Claire and The Artblog sought writing that demonstrated curiosity, originality, and a willingness to experiment.

The New Art Writing Symposium

The writing challenge was also connected to Philadelphia's first New Art Writing Symposium, a collaboration between The St. Claire and The Artblog that brought together a series of activities focused on the state of art writing.

The symposium and competition shared the same larger objective: to examine, expand, and celebrate the ways people write about art. Together, they created a space for conversations about criticism, contemporary art, and the role of writing within Philadelphia's cultural community.

The Jurors

The final selections were made by a group of experienced editors, writers, and arts professionals:

• Nell McClister — art book editor and reviews writer, formerly associated with BOMB and Artforum.
• Abigail Satinsky — associate director at Threewalls in Chicago and contributor to Bad at Sports.
• Hrag Vartanian — editor-in-chief of Hyperallergic.

From the Challenge to the Archive

Some of the writing produced through the challenge remains part of The St. Claire's editorial archive. These pieces provide a snapshot of how Philadelphia artists, exhibitions, and cultural questions were being discussed at the time.

One example is “Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock” at the ICA , written by Bridget A. Purcell. The piece was selected as a finalist in the 2016 New Art Writing Challenge and examines Louise Fishman's work through questions of material, scale, abstraction, gender, feminism, and artistic process.

The surviving articles are more than records of individual exhibitions. Taken together, they document a period in Philadelphia's contemporary art scene and demonstrate the different ways writers responded to artists and institutions across the city.

Why Art Writing Still Matters

Art writing plays an important role in preserving the conversations surrounding exhibitions and artists. Galleries and museums document their programs, while writers provide another layer of interpretation, criticism, and context.

Independent publications are particularly important in this process. They can create room for emerging writers and artists whose work might not fit easily within more established critical frameworks.

The New Art Writing Challenge reflected this belief. By encouraging writers to experiment with form and perspective, the project contributed to a broader culture of independent art criticism in Philadelphia.

An Archive of Philadelphia's Creative Community

Today, this page serves as an archive of that project. The competition itself is no longer accepting submissions, but its original purpose remains relevant: encouraging thoughtful, independent, and imaginative writing about art.

The surviving New Art Writing Challenge pieces are preserved alongside The St. Claire's wider collection of writing about artists, exhibitions, culture, and creative life. Together, these materials offer a window into Philadelphia's contemporary art scene and the writers who helped document it.

For readers exploring the archive, the challenge is also a useful starting point for discovering the relationship between Philadelphia artists and writers, independent publications, and the city's broader contemporary art community.