National Eisteddfod Academy 12th Young Artist Awards Competition 2024: Call for Entries
The National Eisteddfod Young Artist Award Competition, launched in 2013, provides an opportunity for top achievers in the Creative and Visual Arts. It provides a higher level of competition for the future Esther Mahlangu and Irma Sterns of our country.
The National Eisteddfod Academy, a leading non-profit organisation for youth development in the arts, is calling for entries for the 2024 edition of the 12th Young Artist Awards Competition.
The Young Artist Awards Competition focuses on acknowledging and promoting young visual artists by providing a next level of competition for young artists that have participated in other eisteddfod and festival events. In recent years, this competition has already attracted entries from all over the country. In the interest of all talented young artists in the country the NEA would also like to join hands with other eisteddfods and festivals that provides for visual arts. These organisations are invited to nominate and enter (under the name of their organisation) their top achievers for this competition. Alternatively the parents of the individual participants that participated in these events may also enter them.
Many schools, institutions and private studios do not participate in any eisteddfods or festivals, or only do so bi-annually, or manage their own internal visual arts competitions. The NEA would like to open up a window of opportunity for the young artists of these institutions: schools, institutions and studios are invited to enter their top achievers for the Young Artist Award Competition. As the level of achievement needs to be high, entries from these institutions may only be submitted by the institution itself, after its own internal selection process, and not by the parents of the young artists.
A panel of adjudicators will adjudicate all entries during three rounds of adjudication and their decision will be final. During the first round the best art works per grade will be selected, followed by the semi-final round where only one art work per grade will be selected. From this final selection a winner will be selected in each of the three categories (Entry Level (Gr. 0 – 3), Junior (Gr. 4 – 7) & Senior (Gr. 8 – Open Section). As in 2023, the art works of the grade winners will be on exhibition at the Alice Art Gallery in Ruimsig, Roodepoort prior to the announcement of the winners of the 3 categories on 15 June 2024.
The closing date for entries and the submission of art works to the NEA Office is 19 April 2024.
Entry forms, entry fees and additional information are available on the NEA website. For other information, please contact the NEA Office on 011-886-6005 / e-mail: admin@eisteddfod.co.za.
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About the National Eisteddfod Academy NPC
The National Eisteddfod Academy (NEA) is a registered non-profit company that creates opportunities for youth development in the arts. The activities of the NEA provide various opportunities where young performers can develop and showcase their talents across the full spectrum of artistic and cultural diversity. Considering that, since the founding of the organisation in 1997 the annual NEA Eisteddfod activities have involved more than 575 000 participants in various rural and urban regions, it is fair to say that the NEA is an organisation that has had a significant impact on youth development in the arts. Notwithstanding the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic the NEA also continued with activities throughout 2020 – 2021 by introducing various alternatives for participation in the annual eisteddfod. The National Eisteddfod Academy launched the Young Performer Awards as a next level competition platform for young performers in 2004; some ten years later a Young Artist Awards competition for visual arts was initiated. The National Eisteddfod Young Performer Awards Competition for young performers in music, dance and drama, is presented annually and has awarded more than R500 000 in prizes in recent years. Mimi Coertse, Ismail Mahomed, Sibongile Mngoma, the late Gloria Bosman, Heinz Winkler, Relebogile Mabotja, Bianca le Grange, Vinette Ebrahim, Iain MacDonald, Roderick Jaftha, Diane Coutts, Petronel Malan, Henry Mylne, Harold van Buuren, Heidi Edelin and Izak Davel are a few of the many, well-known luminaries that have adjudicated in the past.
