Jury

We’re proud that top professionals joined our last jury session, with inspiring backgrounds aligned with our mission to select the best and most relevant social art projects from across the world. To do so, the selection procedure always combines quantitative and qualitative assessments in several loops to guarantee a high-quality standard.

The jury awards:

Social Art Award Jury 2021

Tereza de Arruda

Tereza de Arruda is an art historian and independent curator. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, she has lived in Berlin, Germany since beginning her studies there in 1989. She has curated a vast number of exhibitions worldwide and been invited as a co-curator of the Curitiba International Biennial in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017 and as an advisor to the Havana Biennial since 1997. Through her international curatorial work she has highlighted the need for intercultural dialogue and created opportunities for cultural exchange between countries with different backgrounds. Her art criticism has appeared in numerous catalogues and specialized publications.

Verena Kaspar-Eisert

Based in Vienna, Verena has been a curator at KUNST HAUS WIEN since 2014 and of the FOTO WIEN festival since its foundation. She also develops the programme of exhibitions at the KUNST HAUS WIEN Garage, a dedicated space for art ecology. Through her curation of international group exhibitions such as “Visions of Nature”, “ÜberLeben am Land” and “Nach uns die Sintflut” she has centred the theme of human relationships with nature in the age of the Anthropocene.

Dr. Nishant Shah

Dr. Nishant Shah is Director of Research & Outreach and Professor Aesthetics and Culture of Technologies, at ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands. Knowledge Partner for the global art-technology Digital Earth Fellowship. Faculty Associate 2020-21 at the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Mentor on the Feminist Internet Research Network. His work is at the intersections of body, identity, digital technologies, artistic practice, and activism, with a specific focus on non-canonical geographies. His current interest is in thinking through questions of artificial intelligence, digital subjectivity, and misinformation towards building inclusive, diverse, resilient, and equitable societies. His new book Really Fake is out in Spring 2021 with University of Minnesota Press.

Chantal Bilodeau

Originally from Québec, Chantal has had her prizewinning plays and translations performed worldwide. She also fosters the wider creative community’s engagement with the climate crisis through her roles as Artistic Director of The Arctic Circle, founder of the platform Artists and Climate Change, co-founder of Climate Change Theatre Action and curator of Theatre in the Age of Climate Change. Audubon Magazine named her one of “8 Trailblazers Who Are Changing the Climate Conversation”. Discover more about her work at www.cbilodeau.com/.

Onyis Martin

An award-winning mixed media artist, Onyis Martin’s work is rooted in the exploration of contemporary urban society. Living and working in Nairobi, Kenya, he portrays and reflects intimately upon global issues including migration, displacement, repression, human trafficking, corruption, consumerism and  technological growth. Interweaving different concepts and subjects in a thoughtful and investigative practice, his work creates threads between personal and collective experience . Reflecting this, his exhibitions take the form of interconnected series. He has exhibited across Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Australia, Taiwan, the UK and the USA. Additionally, he supports and fosters the growth of young artists in Nairobi through the roles of mentor and teacher.

Layla Sailor

Layla Sailor is an artist and educator based between China and the UK. After completing a degree in photography at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005, Layla has continued to combine commercial fashion photography with fine art and film. Her work is inspired by cinema and religious iconography and she creates dreamlike, surrealist images that reference traditional crafts, humour, sexuality and politics. Layla is currently developing an international educational consultancy focusing on Fashion Communication. Discover her work: www.laylasailor.com

Thomas Warner

Based in Washington D.C, USA, Thomas has been at the crossroads of the built environment and digital sector throughout his professional life, resolute in the belief that the visualization of abstract possibilities can provoke real world change through collaboration. Working with disparate technologies such as: GPS, LiDAR, photogrammetry, Computer Aided Design, Augmented Reality, satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems, he daily demonstrates how technology and the data we produce can weave interpersonal stories connecting communities and geospatial environments. Thomas has collaborated with ecologists, geographers, sociologists and engineers on hugely varied projects ranging from mapping land cover changes to migration. Currently, he is working with doctors and data scientists to map the Covid-19 pandemic and the logistics of vaccination.

Zakary Zide-Brazen

Zakary Zide-Brazen has lived his life at the intersection of ecology and design. He founded the EarthDance Environmental Film Festival; played an instrumental role on the host committee for the 2005 United Nations World Environment Day; and was awarded an Environmental Artist-in-Residency at the Permaculture Institute. He has witnessed the power of Art and Nature to transform hearts and minds. Currently the Head of Global Creative for Akamai Technologies, Mr. Zide-Brazen has worked with such brands as Nike, Airbnb, and Google.

Christophe de Jaeger

Christophe De Jaeger is an art historian and curator specializing in media art and collaborative practices between art and research. He has realized exhibitions with media artists in Belgium, the USA, Shanghai (China), and Milano (Italy). He is the founder of BOZAR LAB at the Center for Fine Arts (BOZAR) and founding director of GLUON, a platform for art, science & technology in Brussels. Christophe De Jaeger also has a strong interest in S.T.E.A.M. education and initiated the Brussels STARTS Academy in collaboration with Ehb & BOZAR: an extracurricular S.T.E.A.M. program for young people between 14 and 18 years old in Brussels.

Jess Brazen

As a Creative Director building brand experiences and designs for international clients, Jess Brazen has spent the past 17 years experiencing first-hand how effective communication and collaboration are vital to creating change. She believes this is equally as important a consideration for artists, as they have a unique voice and medium to inspire action. Jess is dedicated to creating a positive impact on the environment and fostering progress through her work. Having previously held solo and group painting exhibitions in the USA, her artwork has always had an undercurrent of strong narratives reflecting pressing social issues. She has also served on the jury of various festivals and participated in numerous speaking engagements on topics spanning design, marketing, and gender equality. It is her belief that using art as a medium to effect change is powerful and essential, as we face numerous obstacles in our efforts to realize the UN SDGs.

Nicole Loeser

Nicole Loeser, Board Director at the Institute for Art and Innovation, is an art and innovation manager, and serial entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in cross-sectoral collaboration with institutions and corporations worldwide. Her work is grounded in her interest in artistic and scientific research, as well as for social innovation theory and practice. She has been running her own gallery WHITECONCEPTS for more than 10 years. Furthermore, she is a university lecturer author, speaker, and workshop facilitator focusing on transdisciplinary and intercultural co-creation processes, lately on the topics of circular society and future-scenario-building. She believes in joining forces with progressive networks to create impact and global action in regard to the implementation of UN’s SDGs. “The Universal Sea” (2017-2019), a ‘Creative Europe’ collaboration project on water pollution of which Nicole was EU-project lead, proved that interdisciplinary collaboration is key to finding solutions to Anthropogenic challenges and igniting transformation.

Social Art Award Jury 2019

Artur Aheiev (UA) / Katrin Korfmann (NL) / Mehdi Yehya (LB) / Carolina Pérez (CL) / PSJM: Pablo San Jose and Cynthia Verez (ES) / Kaethe Wenzel (GER) / Viktoria Trosien (GER) / Nicole Loeser (GER)

Social Art Award Jury 2017

Vanessa Ramos-Velazques (BR/USA) / Michael Zheng (CN/USA) / PSJM: Pablo San Jose and Cynthia Verez (ES) / Kaethe Wenzel (GER) / Barbara Hoppe (GER) / Viktoria Trosien (GER) / Nicole Loeser (GER)