An important funding call from Melbourne-based Memo Review. They are in urgent need for funding tand have launched an Australian Cultural Fund to support their independent arts criticism. Memo Review is one of the few sites that provides critical, intelligent, irreverent arts writing in Australia. They pay their writers, which include established emerging artists, art historians, theorists. A worthy cause to throw some money behind if you appreciate good writing and fair pay for those who do it.

Visit the fundraiser here: https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q0000006gyU/support-melbournes-only-weekly-art-criticism

See the latest from Memo Review here: https://memoreview.net/

From Memo Review:

Memo Review has published Melbourne’s only weekly independent art criticism every Saturday morning since 2017. We are seeking support to pay our writers for the next year. Help us keep quality local art criticism alive.

So much art writing today is neither here nor there. Promotion. Marketing. Endless praise. Memo is the only platform in Melbourne publishing informed, critical art reviews. We were founded by early-career art historians who wanted to do something about the lack of free, accessible writing on local art. We publish reviews of a broad variety of exhibitions at public art museums, commercial galleries, and smaller artist-run spaces, offering critical perspectives from a new generation of Australian art scholars, writers, curators, and artists.

But from 1 July, Memo will have no funding—we need your help. We are 100% volunteer run, from editing to web-development. To pay writers and keep Memo ad-free, we have launched this Australian Cultural Fund. With your support, we can continue to publish quality, independent weekly art criticism.

Over the years, We’ve reviewed (amongst much more):

  • major blockbusters at the NGV and ACCA
  • important regional shows in Ballarat, Geelong and Bendigo
  • leading contemporary commercial galleries like Neon Parc, Sutton Gallery, Kali Rolfe, and Anna Schwartz Gallery
  • established artist-run spaces like TCB, West Space, Gertrude Contemporary, Caves Gallery, and Blindside
  • little-known backyard spaces like Meow, Guzzler, and Savage Garden.

Memo brings erudite, historically-informed analysis from:

  • senior and early-career university art historians like Rex Butler, Helen Hughes, and Anna Parlane
  • inimitable cultural critics like Philip Brophy and Audrey Schmidt
  • practising artists like Amy May Stuart and Kate Meakin
  • dedicated contributing editors like Victoria Perin, Tristen Harwood, Cameron Hurst, Chelsea Hopper, Paris Lettau, Amelia Winata, David Wlazlo, and Giles Fielke

Since 2019, Memo has also run a student critic mentorship program, called Mass Memo. Editors support student art writers through writing workshops and mentored coverage of the annual art-school graduate shows at VCA, Monash University, and RMIT. Memo is the first to cover many young and emerging artists coming out of Melbourne. We are helping build their art-historical record and are a key contributor to local conversations about our city’s art. Readers come to Memo for opinions with substance from writers who care. Funds raised will be used to pay our writers and support delivery of our student critic mentorship program. To cover the costs of a year’s 50 reviews, we require $20,000.

  • $1,000 will pay for over two reviews and contribute to our overheads like web-hosting fees and ad-hoc design fees making you a Benefactor.

  • $400 will pay for a single review and make you a Commissioner.

  • $100 will get a writer to a regional gallery.

  • Every contribution is sincerely appreciated.

  • We will celebrate the generosity of our supporters, listing your name on our website.