The 2016 inaugural YAJA - Year in review

Published by: YAJA | 14-Dec-2016
YAJA was officially launched at the end of 2015 as a concept to offer students media opportunities, industry mentoring, recognition and a large audience. We were positively surprised on how well our idea has been received and about the support that was offered on a global level.

Some of our most valuable achievements are:

  • Creation of an internationally recognised journalism award.
  • 37 entries from around the globe.
  • Establishing a strong network of media and university partners.
  • Several international youth organisations such as the European Commission's Eurodesk promoted the YAJA.
  • University staff were strong supporters in letting students know about the YAJA.
  • Top reach for one of the entries was: 1,200 Page views, avg. time on page 5:20 and 1,000+ Facebook shares.

A big thank you goes out to all our dedicated judges who voluntarily offered their time to pick the top entries

As with many newly created projects we also faced some challenges.

Number one was funding. YAJA is currently self funded and it's future growth depends on crowd and industry funding. Launching a crowd fund campaign early 2016 turned out to be a disaster ;-)

Another one, surprisingly, was student commitment: Although media opportunities were offered on a regular basis, a very small number was actually taken. Of those picked by students, a significant number didn't turn out any results at all.

Outlook for 2017

2017 will be bigger and better. We are working hard to:

  • Raise our profile and significance in the industry.
  • Grow the number of entries.
  • Grow global audience reach.
  • Raise financial support and funds to support students.
  • Grow the number of media opportunities posted by the art industry.
  • Grow awareness for YAJA at university level.

Thank you for all your support. As our ambassador Alf Klimek says: "See you at YAJA".

Erik Rathmayr & Volker Janssen
Co-founders of the Young Art Journalism Awards

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