Vernacular is nearing the end of its funds ︎

July 23 update

Our project funding from Creative New Zealand is coming to an end in August. Please take this into consideration while you are making your pitch. We wish to uphold best practice principles by offering fair remuneration in the form of writers’ fees (see the AMA website, ‘Rate$ of pay’). Vernacular is currently unable to meet this standard. At the same time, we can offer editorial support and a platform on which to publish your writing in lieu of a writer’s fee. We understand that this is not ideal! And we hope it will be temporary—please stand by. 

On pitches

Vernacular operates by using a mix of both commissioned and pitched texts. We are now accepting pitches for exhibition reviews of about 800–1000 words. Please familiarise yourself with our aims and values which can be found on the ‘about’ page of our website and within the first editorial article.

Pitches should include:

︎︎︎  the exhibition you’d like to respond to, why you think it’s important that it be documented on Vernacular and why you would like to be the one to write about it.

︎︎︎  tell us a little about yourself, your involvement in the arts and your favourite ARIs or galleries.

︎︎︎  note any experience, whether strictly professional or not; if you’re the pal that your friends go to when they need something written up or edited let us know!

Beyond exhibition responses, pitches may include: ideas for opinion/commentary essays; interviews; journalistic investigations, maybe about an ARI or project space you've heard whispers of but never been to or know about; individual research projects/tangents; something that you find frustrating; or exciting; etc. Pitch it! See what happens.

Email Orissa    orissakeane@gmail.com

Please note that we are a small operation with a limited publishing capacity.

Useful to note: 
Our standard fee is $400 for 800-1000 words, word limit can run over but we like to keep it in relation to the fee so that it equals about 50c per word as a standard.

The form of the writing can be as free as you like but because these exhibition spaces and the exhibitions themselves tend to be difficult to engage with remotely, we aim for a certain generosity within the written responses, adding and illuminating something for an audience who can't experience the work first-hand, though without being didactic. We also encourage writers to think deeply, engaging with any written material available about the exhibition or attending artist talks etc., in order to take a critical approach to writing. Our editors can help with this and to also mediate critiques so that it's helpful for the artists so as not to be divisive but open discussion and critical debate.

If you feel comfortable please reach out to the gallery to receive documentation photographs with photographer credit, permission and captions. Our editors are more than happy to help establish these connections if that helps.

On support

Vernacular is an artist-led platform for critical discourse and connection in Aotearoa. All content of this publication is free to access, however, we are working on establishing a paid subscription option to help support ongoing costs of Vernacular for those who are willing and able to help. If you would like to support the publication in the meantime, please feel free to contact Orissa. In the meantime, thanks for visiting ︎

orissakeane@gmail.com