Connecting people through art 

Han Nefkens (Spain) has been awarded the 2019 Montblanc Arts Patronage Award for his efforts to connect people through art across the world. With the Han Nefkens Foundation he does ground-breaking work to support emerging international video artists through awards, production grants and mentorship grants. The Foundation works intensively with artists in a made-to-measure way, according to each artist’s needs. As Han Nefkens recently said, “The approach of the Foundation is both personal and personalised in an effort to give artists the most precious commodity we have: our time."

The €15.000 from the Montblanc Arts Patronage Award will go towards a mentorship grant for the young Afghan video artist Aziz Hazara which will allow him to produce new work. The Han Nefkens Foundation will also help Hazara to enrol in a residency program abroad, so he will be able to meet curators, other artists and engage in a new cultural environment. Furthermore, the Foundation will provide Hazara with practical support, curatorial assistance and it will serve as a sounding board.

The Montblanc Arts Patronage Award is given to art patrons from across the globe, recognizing those individuals whose unrelenting support and commitment gives the arts new ways to flourish. In commenting on the 2019 Awards, Montblanc Cultural Foundation Chairmen Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath said: “The recipients in each of the countries and regions were chosen because of their outstanding history of personal commitment and support of the work of young and emerging artists and cultural producers. They each enable artists to create socially engaged work that benefits their respective communities.”

The award recipients were chosen from a broad list of nominees that were compiled by 50 internationally established cultural figures. The final selection was made jointly by the Curatorium of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation consisting of Anne Barlow (Director, Tate St. Ives), Sunjung Kim (Director, Gwangju Biennale), Jean de Loisy (Director, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts Paris), Franklin Sirmans (Director, Perez Art Museum Miami), Jochen Volz (Director, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paolo), and the Foundation’s Chairmen, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath.