They say the first time is chance, the second is coincidence, and the third marks the start of a tradition. The third season of the Visual Art Criticism Awards establishes this tradition in the Lithuanian cultural field, inviting nominations for the most memorable and impactful art criticism initiatives of 2024.

Established by three institutions – the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), the National Gallery of Art (NGA) of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art (LNMA), and the digital magazine of contemporary art Artnews.lt – the awards are open for nominations until 2 March. Proposals can be submitted by filling out the nomination form or by sending texts to [email protected]. Eligible works must have been published in 2024 and reflect on events and processes in the Lithuanian visual art field, the work of artists, or texts by Lithuanian authors on artistic phenomena abroad. This includes reflections on the work of a single artist. Scholarly texts created as part of study programmes are only eligible if published as articles, books, or exhibition content. As in previous years, nominations are open across four categories: Short Form, Long Form, Artists’ and Curators’ Texts, and Phenomenon of the Year. Eligible formats include written texts, radio and TV programmes, podcasts, and other initiatives.

Encouraging participation in the initiative, curator, writer, and the new CAC director Valentinas Klimašauskas highlights the value of art criticism: 

This competition is an opportunity to recognise those who are saving us from exponentially growing information overload. To criticise is to live authentically. To criticise is to resist inertia, to resist algorithms. It is attending exhibitions, reading thick catalogues, returning home with your pockets – or internal phone memory – full of exhibition texts, and thinking about them – on behalf of all of us. At least for those who believe artificial intelligence can’t do it for us. Let us help the critics help us. Let us be critics. Read, write, recommend yourself or others. Let us make the effort to live in an authentic present. It won’t happen on its own, nor automatically. Let us empower the critics.

Last year, the MO Museum joined the awards as a new partner, introducing the annual MO Young Critics’ Grant in collaboration with the Vilnius Academy of Arts and Vytautas Magnus University. The first recipient of the grant, art critic Marija Martinaitytė, also encourages nominations: 

Artists’ works, performances, or events often spark important conversations, which are then developed and reexamined through talking, discussing, reflecting, and, finally, writing. Criticism and art commentary often capture not only the most memorable, fascinating, or even infuriating aspects but also ephemeral works that might otherwise fade from memory. Such texts often become sole records for the future – and sometimes even artworks themselves.

This year’s nominations will be reviewed by a jury comprising writer Vaiva Grainytė, art critic Ieva Gražytė, art critic Agnė Narušytė, curator Audrius Pocius, and literary critic Saulius Vasiliauskas. The jury will create a shortlist to be announced in May, with the winners revealed on 29 May at a gala awards evening at the CAC. Winners will receive a €1,000 cash prize, with an additional €500 grant awarded by the MO Museum. Complementing the awards, this season will feature a series of public events, with details to be announced soon.

Initiated by the CAC, NGA, and Artnews.lt, the awards are organised in cooperation with the Lithuanian Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and the Association of Cultural Periodicals. The project partner is the MO Museum. The organisers of the initiative are Goda Aksamitauskaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė (NGA), Danutė Gambickaitė (Artnews.lt), Virginija Januškevičiūtė, Edvardas Šumila, and Justina Zubaitė-Bundzė (CAC).
The project is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Submit your nomination here: click here.