AICA Incentive Prize for Young Art Critics
About this opportunity
The AICA Incentive Prize for Young Art Critics is an annual essay competition run by the International Association of Art Critics, inviting emerging writers to submit critical essays on a rotating theme. The prize is designed to encourage new critical voices to engage with underrepresented topics and geographies, and to promote the international circulation of new ideas in art criticism.
Application tips
Respond directly and substantively to the annual theme rather than submitting a pre-existing essay. The judges value original research, engagement with art beyond Western centres, and bold critical arguments. Check the AICA website each spring for the current year's theme.
Pathway
Helpful prior experience
Related opportunities
CUE Art Foundation / AICA-USA
The CUE Art Foundation Art Critic Mentorship Program, run in partnership with AICA-USA, pairs emerging writers with established art critics to produce original long-form essays about artists exhibiting at CUE's gallery in New York. The programme offers sustained editorial mentorship and the opportunity to develop ambitious critical writing for publication, providing a rare supported pathway into professional art criticism.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Creative Capital
Opens: April · Closes: May
The Arts Writers Grant supports both emerging and established writers producing quality writing about contemporary visual art. Funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation and administered by Creative Capital, the programme awards grants across four categories: articles, books, short-form writing, and translation (a new category introduced in 2026 supporting English translations of books about contemporary visual art).
ArtReview
Opens: March · Closes: June
ArtReview periodically runs competitions and commissions for emerging art writers. The magazine is one of the world's foremost contemporary art publications, and publication in ArtReview provides significant visibility and credibility for emerging critics.