One of the art world’s most ambitious awards is seeking applications for 2023 with three prizes of €50,000 up for grabs. The Art Explora & Académie des Beaux-Arts European prize, funded by the European tech entrepreneur Frédéric Jousset, is 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,” says the award rules. which also state that “the award must fund the establishment of a new project or the expansion of an existing project with a new dimension. It can cover capital or operating expenses.”
Applications must be completed online between 3 May and 11 September at artexplora.org. Once applications are closed, a shortlist of 18 projects will be made by the Art Explora teams. A jury made up of nine people—four academics appointed by the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, four experts appointed by Art Explora and the chairman, Frédéric Jousset—will decide the winners. An Audience Choice Award of €10,000 will be made to one of the 18 shortlisted applicants, which will be chosen by public vote.
The Art Explora & Académie des Beaux-Arts European prize is one of a number of initiatives spearheaded by Jousset’s non-profit organisation Art Explora, which is backed by a €100m investment fund.
The National Gallery in London was among the winners of the inaugural award in 2020 which enabled its curators to take a Dutch Golden Age masterpiece, Jan van Huysum’s Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1736-37), on tour around Britain. Last year’s winners include the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla in Spain and Projekt Europa theatre company in the UK.
Jousset, the son of former Centre Pompidou curator Marie-Laure Jousset, is the founder of WebHelp—a tech support and outsourcing company that was valued at €2.4bn in 2019 according to Business Review magazine (he has stepped down from the company). The tech mogul also acquired the French art magazine Beaux-Arts in 2016.