The Adelaide Critics Circle Incorporated
The Adelaide Critics Circle Incorporated represents the united force of the city's performing and visual arts critics.
Adelaide critics – the Scribblers in the Dark - are a rare breed, uniquely skilled in their art through their exposure to the city's long history as home to famous arts festivals, and the extraordinary creativity of the arts and artists in the state of South Australia.
The critics, from mainstream and alternative media, meet regularly to nominate outstanding work and, at year’s end, to vote for the winners of their awards - the ACColades.
Since its inception in 1996, at the instigation of Festival Artistic Director Robyn Archer, the ACC has been graced by Government sponsorship which both consolidates its objectivity and indicates the Government's support for local awards and the professional kudos they bestow.
The Adelaide Critics Circle became and Incorporated body under association number is A45359, on the 22nd of July, 2024.
Criticism in Critical State
The 2012 Adelaide Critics Circle awards ceremony was not just a celebration of the outstanding work which took place in 2012, but also a forum at which the Circle chose to announce a significant public statement about the state of the arts in Australia today.
Veteran Adelaide critic and founding chair of the Circle, Samela Harris, read out the statement about the “Critical Condition” of the state of criticism today, noting that arts reviewing, a vital aspect of traditional arts coverage is dwindling alarmingly in the shrinking pages of today's print media. Some of the points of concern included:
Russell Starke OAM
Vale - Russell Starke OAM.
He was one of our own, an early member of the Adelaide Critics Circle and a very fine critic.
He stepped away from the Circle when he was no longer reviewing for the media and, despite entreaties from the other critics who admired his deep knowledge of theatre and his eloquent bonhomie at meetings, he said that he felt that unless one was reviewing, one no longer was qualified to be in the Circle. Ethics, dearies.
Russell’s death has left Circle members reeling. He was 82, but still in the verve of life until leukaemia struck suddenly and swiftly.
The Advertiser Cuts Arts Critics
PRESS RELEASE - 15 July 2024
The Advertiser cuts arts critics
Statement from the Adelaide Critics Circle.
It is with deep concern that the Adelaide Critics Circle Incorporated (ACCI) notes that the Adelaide metro daily, The Advertiser, has dispensed with the services of its specialised contributors of performing-arts criticism.
Long-serving theatre, music, and opera critics have been informed by email that The Advertiser no longer will be running arts reviews and therefore no longer will be needing the critics. It added: “This email is to give you 30 days notice”.