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Exchange in Visual Arts
YOUNG VISUAL ARTISTS AWARDS
A Project of the Foundation for a Civil Society
The Foundation for a Civil Society (FCS) with affiliates in
ten countries in Central and Southeastern Europe has organized a
major international award program for young visual artists in
the region. This unique program was established with President
Havel and a group of artists in Czechoslovakia in 1990. Since
then this highly successful annual program with national
exhibitions and awards, including travel fellowships to the
United States for artists under the age of 35, has now been
expanded from the Czech Republic to Slovakia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia,
Albania and Bulgaria and two more countries – Hungary and
Romania – are currently in negotiations.
The organizers in each country and FCS wish to extend the scope
of the program by regular gatherings of the artists, curators,
organizers and arts professionals to engender greater contact as
well as exposure for the young artists of CEE & SEE. These will
include both formal and informal encounters, exhibitions,
catalogues, and residencies. Digital media is being used to
present the art scene of the region with web-based portfolios of
the artists at www.yvaa.net. All these will create vital
connections and increase the public awareness of the talent
available in these countries. The artists cherish the contacts
they have made among themselves during their fellowships abroad
and would like to deepen and broaden these. The YVAA partners
have already received grants from the European Cultural
Foundation and the Erste Foundation to begin with the first
phases of the envisioned activities.
The cultural scenes in the countries of Central and Eastern
Europe are at various stages based on the speed of transition
and recent political developments. Young artists in these
countries, however, face the same issues when developing their
careers – seeking acknowledgement, building reputation, looking
for contacts, desiring an exchange with peers, and exposing
themselves to the larger world and its art scene. Few
institutions exist to help them achieve these goals and they
differ from one country to another.
In 1990, President Vaclav Havel and a group of artists founded
the Jindrich Chalupecky Award in Czechoslovakia designed to
expose young artists to the free world and to underscore the
role of culture in democratization. They established an open and
transparent annual competition judged by an independent and
changing jury without the nepotism and favoritism of communist
days. The award provides a young visual artist under 35 not only
with the opportunity to have a joint exhibition with the
finalists at a prestigious gallery or museum but also to travel
to the United States and participate in the dynamic art scene in
New York. Upon returning home, he or she has a solo exhibition.
It is now the most respected arts award in the country. After
the split of Czechoslovakia, a similar award was also
established in Slovakia. Several years later art organizations
from other countries expressed interest in replicating this
structure and their effort gave birth to the Young Visual
Artists Awards project, which now encompasses ten awards –
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and
Montenegro, Slovenia, Albania and Bulgaria. A total of 66 young
artists have been awarded so far and for all of them, the
receipt of the award marked a significant change in their
careers.
The Foundation for a Civil Society (FCS), with generous funding
from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, has managed the U.S.
part of the fellowship, receiving the winning artists and
arranging their visit and travel for a six-week stay in New York
with program and a studio at the highly acclaimed International
Studio and Curatorial Program. Organizations in each country
independently conduct the in-country competition, the
exhibitions, the fundraising and the award ceremony, reflecting
their commitment to the goals of the awards.
The project builds on a unique, organically growing program that
started with an idea in 1990 and over time grew into a group of
awards in ten countries. The fact that the awards have shown
growing interest in their own countries is the expression of the
strength of the simple but effective idea behind the awards.
Basing cooperation on an organically created network is a unique
process in the region and so far only limited cooperation
between all of these countries exists. The oldest of the awards,
the Jindrich Chalupecky Award in the Czech Republic, is an
example that organizers in the other countries wish to follow –
the prestige of the award within the Czech Republic is
constantly growing and the winners and finalists of the award
are constantly present on their local as well as the
international art scenes. The same is happening in the other
countries – to name a few, YVAA winners and finalists were
selected to exhibit at Venice, Istanbul and Berlin biennials,
and Documenta and Manifesta exhibitions all within the past
three years. Giving the art scene the tools for proper
presentation of such success would result in multiplication of
the effect of the awards. In some countries the awards are the
only competitive event on the art scene run in a completely
transparent method. The continuity and stability of these
independent awards is an innovation in itself.
In November 2005, a joint exhibition of YVAA finalists was held
in Prague on the occasion of the sixteenth Jindrich Chalupecky
Award ceremony. While the exhibition was on view, the FCS, again
with the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, convened
the organizers and winning artists from all of the eight
countries to meet in Prague. In addition to a public
presentation of each award and the winning artists’ work, the
participants met in a closed meeting to share their
organizational experience and thoughts on how to build on the
remarkable inter-European and international informal network
that has been developed over time. The topics of discussion
included fundraising needs for continued sustainability of all
of the awards, the extreme interest in informal trans-border and
regional collaboration, and the need to expose the local art
scenes to foreign audience, especially through creation of
personal contacts.
The informal trans-border projects may find a fertile ground in
the very specific experiences of countries in different stages
of transition, supported by ongoing professional relationships
between the organizers and the artists alike. The regional
Central and Eastern European exchange is as important as
contacts with art scenes in the West, building on closer
historical ties and cultural references. Such an exchange is
also important to the confidence building and empowerment of the
artists and arts professionals.
The following modes of extended cooperation were identified as
necessary:
• regular gatherings such as the Prague seminar to deepen the
personal and professional relationships of the organizers as
well as the artists, who so far are the only ones with the
advantage of creating connections with the artists of the
regional awards during their New York residencies
• organization of joint exhibitions of winners from all
countries with occasional major exhibitions and symposia
surveying the art of the region
• informal exchange of people at multiple arts events in the
region
• inclusion of foreigners on the juries
• invitation of foreign curators from out of the region to visit
the countries in the region and to learn about the art scene
through studio visits and meetings with artists in person
• jointly seek financial support for sustainability of the
competitions to achieve more visibility and higher prestige
• finding financial support for realization of artists work and
creation of promotional materials using digital media to present
the art scene of the region including web based portfolios of
past winners and finalists and the history of all awards
As a follow-up to the Prague meeting, the Foundation/Center for
Contemporary Arts in Bratislava, the Contemporary Art Center
Skopje and the Institute for Contemporary Art, SCCA Zagreb with
the support of the FCS have applied in 2006 for a grant from the
European Cultural Foundation to establish a simple coordination
entity – Center for Exchange in Visual Arts – as a presentation
and promotion platform for the YVAA winners and finalists and
the awards, and the exposure of the art scenes in the region to
international audience and regional general public. The ECF
grant was awarded.
The grant financed the second gathering of YVAA artists and
organizers, and another joint exhibition of the 2006 YVAA
winners from then participating eight countries which took place
in October-November, 2006, hosted and organized by the Kosova
Art Gallery in Pristina. The discussions included establishment
of methods for distribution of grants from the YVAA/Exchange in
Visual Arts travel fund created with seed money from the ECF;
further fundraising for travel and exchange of artists and art
professionals and curators; website design and structure;
sharing experience on art education on the request of the Kosovo
co-organizers; planning of next joint exhibitions and gatherings
and the possibilities of expansion of the YVAA program to
Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro and Albania. The grant also
financed the creation of YVAA website at www.yvaa.net which was
launched in 2007 and is being continuously updated with
portfolios of YVAA winning and finalist artists from all of the
participating 10 countries.
With a generous grant from Erste Foundation, the third joint
exhibition, symposium and gathering took place in July 2008 in
Belgrade. Apart from the YVAA organizers and winning artists
additional guests from the CEE & SEE region as well as the rest
of Europe and the US were invited to participate in the
symposium and to share their view of the art scene in the entire
region. The events bringing almost 40 art professionals and
artists together were the largest in the YVAA program to date.
Travel grants from the Exchange in Visual Arts program were also
used for this occassion.
As Richard Lanier, Director of the Trust for Mutual
Understanding, said in the catalogue that accompanied the Prague
exhibition of the Young Visual Artists Awards: “One of the most
exciting aspects of these programs is the way they broaden the
aesthetic experience not only of those who receive the award but
also of everyone – fellow artists, curators, critics, and
members of the public alike – with whom the winners come in
contact, both at home and abroad. It has been especially
valuable, for example, in introducing to [the wider
international community] the tremendous vitality and creativity
of the art being produced in Central and Eastern Europe today.”
The Foundation for a Civil Society and its partners see this as
a unique opportunity to build on a vibrant network of arts
organizations to promote regional exchange and cooperation.
EXCHANGE IN VISUAL ARTS – YOUNG VISUAL ARTISTS AWARDS in 2009
• Upkeep and update of YVAA website at www.yvaa.net
• Launch of in-region residencies and exchange of
art-professionals including foreigners on juries
• Joint projects highlighting the art practice and production in
the region on the basis of YVAA
• Expansion of YVAA to Romania and Hungary planned to join in
2010 season
YVAA
Official Site
Similar Partner:
CEC ARTSLINK
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