We believe that healthy and vibrant arts communities depend upon the feedback loop that arts writers and arts publications provide the public. We have begun partnering with local and regional publications across the U.S. to train writers to develop an art criticism “beats,” providing them financial support as well as mentorship. The apprenticeship model focuses on training, mentoring, and professionalizing someone who has already decided that they want to be an art critic (rather than, someone in an internship model who is in the exploratory stages of their career).

The Apprenticeship emerges from our interests in legacy media and the history of the art critic—and our investments in inventing the future of art criticism, and arts writing more broadly. We are compelled by 20th century art critics who had full-time jobs at newspapers and magazines, and had the time and resources to develop a strong voice and a deep of knowledge of how local artists, art works, and trends developed. Often, these critics developed a strong voice that people either loved or hated. The BES Apprenticeship does not aim to train people in being controversial but rather to cultivate writers who have the intellectual and infrastructural support to take risks in terms of levying informed judgment; who can provide rich historical, political, and cultural contexts for their interpretations of artists, their work, and the scenes in which their art is cultivated and exhibited; and who are above all committed to learning how to be a trusted, if disagreed with, member of the dynamic arts communities they interface with.