Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Are you a culture or arts blogger? UK Blog Awards’ Gemma Pears explains why now’s the time to submit your blogs to the first national cross industry blog awards.
Blogging is a popular pastime that’s on the rise, with 31% more bloggers today than there were three years ago. In the past year alone, 3 million new blogs were created every month. Blogs offer a unique insight into the author’s heart and soul by sharing short posts voicing their opinions, thoughts, knowledge and reviews. Freedom of expression is vital in the arts and blogging is a great vehicle for this.
Seventy-seven percent of internet users read blogs and 46% of people read blogs more than once each day.
The UK Blog Awards recognise and celebrate the wealth of talented bloggers from across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Awards are open to live blogs from individuals and organisations across 12 industry categories. The Arts and Culture category is open to blogs covering all genres and art forms ranging from dance to literature, film to architecture, crafts to theatre, music to museums and film to modern art. Entries are not just limited to text posts either, photography blogs, vlogs (video blogs) and other visual blogs showing your original art and designs are also invited to enter.
See a full list of all 12 industry categories.
There are also 3 further sub categories open to all:
- Young Persons Blog Award (18 – 25 years of age)
- Most Innovative Blog
- Digital Shoreditch Dedicated Blog Award (celebrating Technology and Creativity)
Inspiring bloggers
The UK is a world leader in terms of arts and culture and we are seeking blogs to celebrate and showcase this diversity and talent. We’re looking for blogs that really bring alive the culture of a place or communicate the fantastic work from individuals, cultural organisations and projects. Are you a thought leader or ambassador for the arts on a local, regional or national level? Are you one of the ground-breaking libraries, museums and galleries using blogging and digital outreach to connect with your communities and audiences? Maybe you are an art lover or critic and participate in the arts in your spare time? Perhaps you are passionate about the change and positive benefits art and culture can bring, such as the positive effects of the arts on health and wellbeing and youth engagement?
How to enter
Entries are now live and you have until midnight on Sunday 1 December to submit your blog. Submit your entry.
Then follows a two-stage process to identify and crown the top personal and business blogs across all categories via a public vote and expert judging panel. The winners will be announced at the UK Blog Awards taking place in London on 25 April 2014.
We luck forward to receiving your entries – good luck!
Stay up to date with the UK blog awards latest on twitter @UKBlogAwards by using the #ukba14 hashtag