The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) introduces the ADC Critic’s Prize for its first time this year, with an aim to recognise outstanding works of arts criticism and at the same time, to discover new arts critics to promote in-depth and insightful reviews on local artworks and activities

The prize is open to all art forms including drama, dance, music, xiqu, visual arts, film and new media arts and literary arts. Applicants are required to submit a piece of unpublished arts criticism on either a local arts event or a book that was held/published during the year of 2012 in Chinese with no more than 3,500 words (For book review, the author of the book must be written by a Hong Kong writer). Applicants must be aged between 18 and 40. 

The prize has three awards - Gold, Silver and Bronze. Recipient of the Gold award will receive HK$50,000 while for the Silver and Bronze awards, each will receive HK$20,000 and HK$10,000 respectively. The essays of the winning entrants will be published in the project website: www.criticsprize.hk. The ADC will also promote the winning entrants through different channels such as newspapers.

Members of the judging panel includes:

Mr Perry Lam said, “It is the most lucrative prize for arts criticism in Hong Kong. I am sure that it will help discover new writing talents in Hong Kong and enhance the standard of arts criticism. Arts criticism is just as important as artistic creation. With the ADC Critic’s prize, the writing of arts criticism is treated with the respect it deserves.”

Interested parties can now obtain the guideline and application forms from the ADC’s Administration Office (14/F, East Warwick House, Taikoo Place, 979, King’s Road, Hong Kong) or download them from the website www.criticsprize.hk. Application deadline is 6:30pm, 24 September 2012 (Monday). For enquiries, please contact Ms. Lau at 2820-1027.