Pascall Prize

The other award is the June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism, which is supported by the Copyright Agency, recognises significant contribution to arts journalism, and is open to short and long form journalism in all media. This was established in 2017 as the Arts Journalism Award.

History

The Pascall Prize was conceived as a biennial literary award for creative writers who had made original and distinctive contributions to Australia's cultural life. In 1990, to better reflect the work and personal interests of the late Geraldine Pascall, it was decided that the Prize should be awarded annually to a critic or reviewer who contributed regularly in Australia to a newspaper, periodical, or on radio or television. This was extended to include the internet.

It was also agreed that the Pascall Prize would be awarded to a critic working in the areas of literature, art (including design and architecture), food and or wine, music, musical theatre, dance and or drama, film, television or radio. Only sport was specifically excluded.

From 1988 to 2014, the recipient of the Pascall Prize was selected by a judging panel of industry peers appointed by Directors of the Geraldine Pascall Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation established specifically to award the prize. The Pascall Prize and the Geraldine Pascall Foundation were managed by the Music & Opera Singers Trust.

In 2015, the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to film critic, journalist and speechwriter Evan Willams AM on 23 May 2015 at an event held at the Sydney Writers' Festival.

In May 2017, it was announced that the Walkley Foundation would take over administration of the Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism and rename it the Walkley-Pascall Award for Arts Criticism, or Walkley-Pascall Award for short. The first Walkley-Pascall Award was made to Kate Hennessy of The Guardian.

Also in 2017, the Arts Journalism Award was established, later named the June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism.