Who do we write for?: The audience of art criticism
18 May 2024, Saturday, 2-4 pm
Ateneo Art Gallery and Zoom

The Kalaw-Ledesma Foundation, Inc. (KLFI) and the Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG) are pleased to present the final installment of the series of talks to celebrate the 10th year of the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma (PKL) Prizes in Art Criticism.

“Who do we write for?”, the third in the talk series to delve into the relevance and state of art criticism today, takes the form of a question – one that is important for a critic to answer before they put their minds to work and pen to paper.

In a radio message broadcasted through DZUP in 1962 (which was subsequently published in the Philippine Collegian a month later), Purita Kalaw-Ledesma dedicated a section on the role of the art critic in her address titled Search for National Identity in the Fine Arts. She wrote:

“No nation has progressed in its cultural development without competent art critics. It is the art critic who interprets the artist to his audience and at times guides the growth of the artist.”

Before the critic interprets – which is just one of their many functions – they must first ask themselves: Who am I writing for? Who is my audience? This points to another critical inquiry for the writer: Where am I in the artworld’s ecosystem? With such becoming larger and more fragmented (since Kalaw-Ledesma wrote her speech), it is a necessity for the critic to be sensitive to the different individuals and relationships in this vast ecosystem. Such will eventually guide them to answer: Who am I – or more importantly, should I be – writing for?

This session convenes Eileen Legaspi Ramirez, Mariah Reodica, Jay Rosas, and Nicole Soriano Lao. It will be moderated by Lisa Ito-Tapang.

This talk is open to the public for FREE. To attend, register at: https://go.ateneo.net/WhoDoWeWriteFor

For inquiries, please email [email protected].