🏆 Charlotte Ledger wins top award for arts critique
Former managing editor's review of uptown photography exhibit named best in the South
The following article appeared in the July 16, 2025, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
🏆 Ledger wins 1st-place Southern journalism award for arts review
Good news: The Ledger won an award this month honoring the best journalism in the Southeastern U.S. in the category of arts criticism.
Cristina Bolling, The Ledger’s former managing editor, won a first-place “Green Eyeshade Award” in the “criticism & reviews” category in the print and digital writing division for her March 2024 review of “Seeing Auschwitz,” an exhibit about the Holocaust at the VAPA Center in uptown that was presented by the Stan Greenspon Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center at Queens University of Charlotte.
“Seeing Auschwitz” was a photography exhibit at the VAPA Center uptown last year. (Ledger photo)
The Green Eyeshade Awards, in their 75th year, are run by the Society of Professional Journalists and recognize “the very best journalism” across 12 Southern states. The odd name refers to the visors worn by old-time newspaper workers.
Cristina’s article offered a thoughtful reflection on the exhibit and emphasized how it offered the chance to examine the ordinary faces and the human characteristics of the victims and the perpetrators. (Cristina left The Ledger last month after five years to take a job outside of journalism.)
Other Charlotte media winners were The Charlotte Observer, which won two awards, for entertainment reporting (Adam Bell) and profile-writing (Theoden Janes); and Charlotte PBS station WTVI, which won four awards, in feature reporting, explanatory reporting and short-form video reporting.
As I often say, we’re not in this for the awards, and building a successful local media company through smart, honest and thoughtful local journalism is its own reward. But we’re grateful to be recognized by our journalism peers for publishing work they consider to be first-rate. —Tony Mecia
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