This year, Art Explora is initiating the first edition of the Art Explora European Award in partnership with the Académie des Beaux-Arts in an attempt to foster opportunities to share arts and culture with everyone. The Award aims at giving a real boost to innovative projects carried out by European cultural institutions in order to broaden their audiences. The result is visibility for these initiatives: the development of a platform for exchanging ideas and providing operational support for executing the three winning projects by awarding a grant of 80,000 EUR for the 1st prize, 50,000 EUR for the 2nd and 20,000 EUR for the 3rd. This first edition was a real European success with 350 applications from 20 different countries and the participation of many major institutions.
After a first official shortlist gathering 23 European projects, the three prize-winners were selected by a jury of 12 personalities—six nominated by Art Explora, and six coming from the Académie des Beaux-Arts—and have been officially named on December 3rd at a ceremony broadcast online and hosted by Claire Chazal. The replay of the online ceremony is available here.
The jury was made of Agnès Alfandari, digital director at the Institut Français, Laurent Gaveau, laboratory director at the Google Cultural Institute, Frédéric Jousset, president of Art Explora, Blanca Li, choregrapher, Henri Loyrette, general curator of heritage, Muriel Mayette-Holtz, director at the Nice national theater, Jean-Michel Othoniel, plastic artist, Laurent Petitgirard, perpetual secretary of the Académie des beaux-arts, Anna Somers Cocks, journalist, founder of The Art Newspaper, Sam Stourdzé, director at the Academy of France at Rome – Villa Medicis, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, architect, and Marie-Cécile Zinsou, chairwoman at the Zinsou Foundation.
1st prize: Mucem – Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France, for the project Destination Muceum
Destination Mucem is a new mobility project aimed at remote areas: every Sunday, a free bus service is offered to drive people living far from the city center to the museum. This service enables new audiences to create a special link with the museum. During the trip, a personalized and fun mediation is offered in order to prepare the visit in a friendly atmosphere. On arrival at the museum, the public is given a free ticket. The bus will serve four different routes, and its different stops will be prepared by a large communication campaign with local actors.
Find out more on the museum and the project.
2nd prize: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, for the project #VersionaThyssen
This project has already experienced eight editions (the 8th one is ongoing). For each edition, the museum offers young people the opportunity to freely reinterpret one or more artworks from its collections, and to post the result on social media with the hashtag #VersionaThyssen. A jury of professional artists selects the winners. The creations are showcased during evening events at the museum or in digital ceremonies due to the Covid-19 situation. More than 6,500 reinterpretations have already been proposed.
Find out more on the museum and the project.
3rd prize: The National Gallery, London, United Kingdon, for the project Jan Van Huysum Visits...
The National Gallery National Gallery: Jan Van Huysum Visits... is the sequel to the hugely successful 2019 project Artemisia Visits… For Artemisia Visits… Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (about 1615–17) toured to five unusual and unexpected non-museum venues across the UK—a doctors’ surgery, a girls’ school, a women’s prison and two libraries. In 2021 the National Gallery will tour Jan van Huysum’s Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1736–37). This dazzling 18th-century painting will “pop up” in six new unusual locations across the UK with the aim of promoting wellbeing and engaging intergenerational communities, including those most affected by Covid-19. The Gallery will work with local cultural and community partners to maximise long-term impact.
Find out more on the museum and the project.
About Art Explora
In November 2019, aware that culture has the power to initiate dialogue and bring people together, the French entrepreneur and patron of the arts—Frédéric Jousset—created “Art Explora,” a philanthropic foundation with international, nomadic, non-collection and digital ambitions. Art Explora aims at reducing the cultural divide, in particular by relying on digital technologies and mobile solutions, open to all for initiating new encounters between works of art and a large, diverse audiences, whilst giving support to creation, the players in culture and their initiatives.
