• More than 200 artists have been assisted by the Visual Arts Grants programme since its inception in 1993. Artists who wish to be considered for one of this year’s grants should submit their application by May 6.

• Many Fundación Botín sponsored artists have already established an international career and a presence at major events, such as the 59th Venice Biennale, where Pedro Nevés Marqués, Santiago Borja, Teresa Solar and June Crespo will be showing recent work.

• With its Exhibition Curatorship and Museum Management Grants, the Fundación Botín supports young Spanish curators, up to 40 years old, by helping them to complete their training abroad. Applications should be submitted by May 13.

The Fundación Botín today issues the call for applications for its 29th annual Visual Arts Grants and for the 16th iteration of its Exhibition Curatorship and Museum Management Grants, with deadlines for submissions being May 6 and 13, respectively.  Both of these programmes aim to identity and support the best upcoming talents with a capacity to generate progress and social development.

29th annual Visual Arts Grants

The Visual Arts Grants are intended to aid both training and the development of personal and research projects, which must be directly linked to artistic creation rather than to the development of a theoretical study. Specifically, the Fundación Botín offers six scholarships for artists of any nationality with an expected duration of nine months and an endowment of 23,000 euros each, in addition to medical insurance for recipients who need to travel to a country other than their country of residence. Of these six grants, one will be reserved for an artist who is Spanish or resident in Spain (for at least five years immediately prior to applying for the grant), under 30 years of age, who wants to spend time abroad to continue their work, their studies or a residence.

In addition to financial support, the grants programme will showcase the works created by the chosen artists in a collective exhibition at the Centro Botín, Itinerarios, which this year celebrates its twenty-seventh iteration. The works will be presented not only in the exhibition gallery but also in other spaces or formats better suited to making the artists’ researches public, as may be the case with performance, participatory activities or video cycles, among others. The choice of the most conducive presentation will be made by the Centro Botín in consultation with the artists. In addition, at the end of the grant period, the Fundación Botín continues its commitment to grant-aided artists by closely following their subsequent progress and, where appropriate, by purchasing works for inclusion in its Collection.

Since these grants were launched in 1993 they have benefitted more than 200 creative talents by acting as a dynamic stimulus to contemporary art and supporting upcoming talents seeking to develop a research project in the visual arts. It is worth noting that many of the Botín grant recipients have already established themselves on the international art scene and are regularly present at top-level events. This year the 59th Venice Biennale will feature works by Pedro Nevés Marqués, in the Portuguese Pavilion; by Santiago Borja, in the Mexican Pavilion, and by Teresa Solar and June Crespo, both in the central exhibition. Leonor Serrano Rivas will have a solo exhibition at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, while the the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid will host a selection of Carlos Bunga’s work. In addition, Jorge Ribalta will have a retrospective at the MAPFRE Madrid foundation.

Artists interested in opting for a grant should make an initial application using the registration form available on the websites of the Fundación Botín (www.fundacionbotin.org) and the Centro Botín (www.centrobotin.org/becas), and submit the remainder of the requisite documentation on paper by May 6. Every application received will be studied by a specially convened external jury of artists, curators and professionals, with different members each year, which advises the Fundación Botín on achieving the aims of its grants programme. From July 18, the final decision of the jury will be made public with the posting of the list of selected applicants on both of the aforementioned websites.

16th iteration of the Exhibition Curatorship and Museum Management Grants

The Fundación Botín has also announced the closing date for applications for the latest iteration of its Exhibition Curatorship and Museum Management Grants. This programme aims to support the specialised training of the selected applicant to enable them to pursue advanced professional training in the integrated theory and practice of museum management and the organization of exhibitions (Curatorial Studies).

This grant programme provides funding for study abroad with an endowment of 18,000 euros, which will be complemented by up to a maximum of an additional 12,000 euros to cover matriculation at the chosen educational institution, which must be related to contemporary art (from the historic avant-garde to the present day).

The grant is open to Spanish citizens, between 22 and 40 years old, who are graduates or postgraduate students in Fine Arts, Art History, Philosophy and Aesthetics, Literature, Humanities or Art Criticism, and to visual arts professionals who, though not meeting the above requirements, can demonstrate their expertise in this field.

All applications for this year’s grants must be submitted digitally by way of the Fundación Botín website (www.fundacionbotin.org) before May 13. The final decision of the jury, constituted especially for the occasion, will be published from July 1 at www.fundacionbotin.org and www.centrobotin.org/becas

For more information: www.fundacionbotin.org and www.centrobotin.org/becas, under the heading ‘Formación’.