The Art Explora – Académie des beaux-arts European Award 2023

The leading European award championing new dialogues between the arts and audiences

Open to all non-profit European cultural organisations, the European Award encourages new forms of audience engagement and participation in arts and culture, supporting innovative projects, across all art forms, that can be shared, replicated and scaled across Europe.

The 2023 winners

Category 1

Icon by European prizewinner Art Explora Academy of Fine Arts
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.

Category 2

Icon by European prizewinner Art Explora Academy of Fine Arts
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.

Category 3

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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.

Audience Award

Icon by European prizewinner Art Explora Academy of Fine Arts
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.

The 2023 jury

Frédéric Jousset

President and founder ofArt Explora

Laurent Petitgirard

Composer, Permanent Secretary of the Académie des beaux-arts

Muriel Mayette - Holtz

Director of the Nice National Theatre and Academician

Tiffany Fukuma

Managing Director at Trans Europe Halles

Heidi Wiley

Managing Director of the European Theatre Convention

Lluís Bonet

Professor at the University of Barcelona

Edilia Gänz

Director of the FEDORA platform

Angelin Preljocaj

Dancer, choreographer and Academician

Christophe Leribault

Chairman of the Etablissement Public du Musée d'Orsay et du Musée de l'Orangerie and Academician

The 2024 calendar

Applications : May 27 - August 23
Jury meeting: November 2024
Awards ceremony: December 2024

Eligibility requirements

Read our annual publications to learn more about the European Award previous editions and programmes!

Discover the 2022 publication