AWARD show fails to recruit Asians for judging panel

SYDNEY: Despite its ambition to become one of the top pan-Asian creative award shows, this year's Australasian Writers and Art Directors Club (AWARD) awards will not have any judges from Asia. Three Asian judges had been invited, but all failed to take up the offer, citing work commitments, according to Rowan Dean, chairman of AWARD. Dean said AWARD members vote on who will be on the judging panel and the "jury tends to reflect the membership; where the membership is strongest is where the jurors are from, which is Australia and New Zealand". The organisation has 540 members, 30 from Asia, including 22 from Singapore and four from Hong Kong. The AWARD show has also experienced a decline in entries from Asia. Entries from Singapore fell from 560 in 1997 to 160 this year, while entries from Hong Kong dropped from 85 to 22 over the same period. This has prompted AWARD to investigate how it can change the selection process next year to ensure there are more judges from Asia. "The intention is to have more Asian judges and ideally we want to have a proper proportional representation," said Dean, who visited Singapore recently to raise awareness of the organisation and boost membership. AWARD is hoping to win over the 63 creatives from Asia who are eligible to become members because their work reached the finalist stage at previous AWARD shows. It also wants Singapore to establish an AWARD School, a training course for young creatives.

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