The Art Explora-Académie des beaux-arts European Award editions

The European Award support cultural organisations championing new dialogues between the arts and audiences. The Award also offers a platform for sharing and disseminating best practices.

Discover previous years shortlisted projects of the European Award!

Shortlisted projects

Year
Country
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Udruga Skribonauti, Croatia

"Go on With the Story": Inmates from the only female penitentiary in Croatia, writers, visual artists, and musicians create together a digital collection of short stories for everyone to read and share.

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The project

”Go on With the Story” is a multidimensional project that Scribonauts have been implementing in the Croatian prison system since 2016. So far it has consisted of a reading group and creative writing workshops in the only Female Penitentiary in Croatia, online book club for former female prisoners and the general public (+500 participants), regional annual short story competition where the public is invited to write a short story inspired by the fragment written by one of the female inmates (250 short stories received every year), and a short story collection “Go on With the Story”, published by Scribonauts in 2020. This collection includes stories by 12 renowned Croatian female writers, which were inspired by textual fragments produced during writing workshops in the female penitentiary. In 2021 the project and the book won the Sozial Marie award for social innovation. With the aim of fostering wider communication between inmates and the public and widening access to art, we now plan to turn short stories from the collection into multimedia pieces through a collaboration between writers, visual artists, and musicians. This will result in multimedia shorts stories in the format of Facebook/Instagram stories which can be widely shared.


Organization

Matthieu Joffres

Scribonauts are a non-profit organisation which has been developing and implementing cultural and artistic programs for marginalized groups, primarily inmates in prisons and penitentiaries in Croatia, since 2011. By organising artistic workshops and interactive cultural programs (primarily in the field of literature, film and visual arts) in prisons and penitentiaries and public campaigns, our organisation uses art as a tool to bring together marginalised groups, artists, and communities, and thus facilitates resocialisation and fosters the development of closely knit communities based on (artistic) dialogue and solidarity.

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2024
Croatia
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Théâtre National de Wallonie-Bruxelles, Belgium

"An art centre in care home": Combining art and care to reveal the beauty of a place where you least expect it.

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The project

How do you make part of the everyday life of care home residents? That is the question that has inspired the creation of the arts centre in the Sainte Gertrude residence in the heart of the Marolles area in Brussels. Visiting artists take inspiration from encounters and conversations with people who live and work there, and those encounters will result in artworks that will eventually make up the care home’s permanent collection.


Organization

Matthieu Joffres

The National Theatre Wallonia-Brussels, directed by Pierre Thys, has created a collective imagination with mulitdisciplinary partners. They work with artists and cultural organisations in Brussels and nationwide, as well as with organisations beyond the arts sector, building new collaborations.

The creation of an art centre in the Sainte Gertrude residence, designed by Mohamed El Khatib – an associate artist of the Théâtre National – is part of this commitment to reach out to the widest possible range of audiences by creating a link between the sectors of art and caregiving, and by breaking down the barriers between artistic disciplines. A number of initiatives will be carried out to invite audiences to step through the doors of the retirement home.

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2023
Belgium
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Sèvres - Manufacture et Musée nationaux, France

"The Manufacture at the hospital": At the heart of care facilities, the Sèvres Manufacture reveals its secrets and secular know-how to patients, carers and visitors.

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The project

The aim of The Manufacture at the hospital is to provide a high quality programme of creative events to hospital patients. This will include meetings with skilled artisans, access to media libraries, multi-sensory materials, and artistic workshops, demonstrations and discussions, all designed to benefit a diverse audience.


Organization

Matthieu Joffres

Since 1740, Sèvres - Manufacture et Musées nationaux has been dedicated to the preservation, advancement and expansion of the traditional trade of antique porcelain production. Based across three locations, the institution has a range of facilities including: a traditional factory, two museums, an apprenticeship school, a gallery and a showroom.

Between Paris and Versailles, the Sèvres Manufacture has been active since the 18th century and has gained international prestige, renowned for the quality of its porcelain and its expertise. Under the impetus of guest artists, it is a unique focal point for the creation of shapes and colours. It is a place of excellence, transmission and innovation.

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2023
France
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Hospital Rooms, United Kingdom

"Digital Art School" : Nurturing culture & creativity in Mental Health Hospitals through accessible programming for patients, carers, and health workers.

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The project

Digital Art School is one of the only creative outlets currently accessible within mental health hospital wards in the UK, having reached over 142,000 participants since launching in 2020. Hospital Rooms, partnering with NHS England and Winsor & Newton, will now send top-quality art materials and deliver a safeguarded programme and interactive platform, designed by and for people with severe mental illness, to every single mental health ward in the country.


Organization

Matthieu Joffres

Access to art and creativity in mental health units in UK hospitals is extremely limited. This is despite evidence to show the arts “can help patients maintain a sense of personal dignity and control in what are often distressing circumstances” (The Power of Art, 2000), and a real appetite from patients to participate in artistic activity, with one patient saying “I would have given anything to paint”.

Hospital Rooms brings the highest quality artwork and creativity activity into these spaces, working with acclaimed artists to catalyse a fundamental shift in the way we consider and treat people with the most difficult of mental health diagnoses.

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2023
United Kingdom
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Hirundo, Associação para o Pensamento Crítico, Cultura e Desenvolvimento, Portugal

"Open Camp - a new narrative from children in refugee camps" : Empower refugee children with storytelling and animated cinema to document their stories.

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The project

Open Camp - A New Narrative from children in Refugee Camps is a programme that aims to empower refugee children and teenagers with limited access to education while staying in refugee camps. The programme teaches the art of storytelling and animated cinema, enabling them to develop their artistic skills and tell their own stories.


Organization

Matthieu Joffres

At Hirundo we create narratives that bring cultures together. Using artistic languages and training programs, Hirundo promotes creativity and critical thinking to transform problems into opportunities that stimulate growth and learning.

We believe in a society where stories overlap borders and reveal the faces behind the numbers. We believe in civic and informed participation so that complex problems have concrete solutions. We want to be pragmatic without losing the ability to dream of a diverse world capable of accepting this diversity.

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2023
Portugal
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Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, Spain

Creative challenges around museum collections for vulnerable children

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The
project ‍

The "MBASe challenge" is an adventure designed to offer a meaningful experience with art beyond the museum walls for vulnerable children in the Caixa ProInfancy programme . Exploring works of art from different collections and eras, participants are challenged to develop a series of creative tasks based on their own observations and responses.


The
organization ‍

Seville's Museo de Bellas Artes, considered "Spain's second art gallery", spans two centuries of history. Its origins as an institution can be traced back to Spain's 19th-century Disestablishment Laws, which determined its installation in a former monastery and the nature of its collections, most of which came from institutions that had by then disappeared. It features important Baroque works by artists of the Seville school, such as Murillo, Zurbarán and Valdés Leal. Over the years, the museum has become an essential part of Seville's cultural identity.

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2022
Spain
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Fundación Teatro Real, Spain

A travelling theatre to reach audiences across Spain

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The project


"La Carroza del Teatro Real" is a mobile stage that travels all over Spain, offering different types of opera and classical music concerts. The float is 16 meters long, 5.80 meters high and weighs almost 6 tons. This impressive traveling stage was built on a converted shipping container. Inside, it can be adapted to suit the needs of a performance. This project focuses on cultural territorial cohesion, and pays particular attention to educational mediation for young audiences and families.

The organization

The Teatro Real is considered Spain's leading performing arts institution, the country's leading opera house and one of Spain's most important cultural institutions, with an international reputation.
The artistic project behind the Teatro Real has led to its current position as one of the leading international opera centers and a benchmark for Spanish cultural institutions. Its artistic programming aims for excellence, focusing on both traditional repertoire and contemporary forms, including twentieth-century music and the new avant-garde, with a firm commitment to offering audiences a place to discover today's finest artists and creators. It also pays particular attention to new audiences and the popularization of opera among children and young people.

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2022
Spain
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Center Chorégraphique de Strasbourg, France

Give young people the opportunity to use dance as a means of making tHe works of art in museums theirs, and broadening their horizons

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The
project ‍

The project was created by CCS associate artist David Llari, and initiated last season with the museums of Strasbourg, Marseille and Williamstown, as well as the FRAME network, all of which were key partners in the project's success. This collaborative effort, the willingness to contribute human and financial resources to the project, and the provision of space and mediation time, have enabled the project to spread far beyond national borders.
The aim is to enable young people to see the world beyond the confines of their own neighbourhoods: to open up to themselves, to others and to the world, through the expression of the body, by appropriating places of cultural excellence in a singular and personal way.
By virtue of their history and their essence, museums and their collections are the ideal partner to bring this project to fruition.


Organization


The Centre Chorégraphique de Strasbourg, also a municipal conservatory since 2008, is part of the cultural landscape as a player in synergy with others, a partner, an interlocutor and a supporter of initiatives. The CCS is now looking to extend its mediation and outreach activities to other European structures.
Since this season and for three years, the CCS has been working with an associate artist, David Llari, whose innovative method enables this concrete experience of "building together" by appropriating the language of the body in cultural mediation in a singular and personal way. In this way, the body enables us to move from a common language to universal expression.

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2022
France
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European Theatre Convention, Germany

Creating a new and diverse repertoire: Non-Dominant Voices in European Youth Theatre

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The project


Young Europe IV is ETC's large-scale artistic project, promoting and mentoring 9 emerging playwrights to write new plays: diverse stories that haven't been sufficiently told or heard on stage. The plays will be produced by 9 European theaters and performed in school classes across cities from the UK to Cyprus, and at a festival in Nova Gorica (Slovenia) in spring 2024.


Organization


The largest network of public theaters in Europe, the European Theatre Convention has 59 European members from over 30 countries, reflecting the diversity of Europe's dynamic cultural sector. Founded in 1988, the ETC promotes European theater as a vital platform for dialogue that responds to and engages with today's changing societies. With the aim of creating a common cultural heritage in Europe, ETC offers its member theaters artistic collaborations and professional development opportunities, and plays a leading role in lobbying the European Union's political decision-makers on behalf of theater.

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2022
Germany
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