At last night’s Social Art Award Ceremony
The second Social Art Award Ceremony, presented by the Berlin-based Institute for Art and Innovation in collaboration with Lebanese organization Peace of Art, honored the final winners. Last night, on 29 July 2020, an interested audience from 15 countries as well as organizers and jury members came together to cherish and discuss the stimulating artist contributions in the field of Social Art, under the topic of Peaceful Revolutions.
Three artists won the Social Art Award:
Narcissa Gold (USA), Melinda Mouzzanar (Lebanon), Bogna Grazyna Jaroslawski (Poland/Germany. Furthermore, Kingson Kin Sing Chan (UK/Hong Kong) received an Honorary Mention.
After the insightful presentations by the organizers and awardees, a lively exchange on how to invigorate the rise of Social Art started. The goal of the organizers is to build a community and establish a vivid dialogue regarding the importance that artists can play in creating a positive transformation in the world. Social Art aims at creating a social impact. Artists are visionaries, utopists, agents for change, with the ability to affect society by creating emotionally captivating experiences. It is an aesthetic revolution that preludes the societal revolution. The focus diversity of 558 submissions to the open call of the 2nd edition of the Social Art Award shows that artists are active in the multi-faceted fields of Social Art reflecting on wars, genocides, femicides, traumata, violence against refugees, children, women, men, disabled people, LGBTQIA, and animals. Sharing feelings for the planet and its living species, some works also show hopelessness due to complex crises be it climate change (e.g. in regard to water pollution and scarcity), capitalism, corruption, violation against human rights, nature, or protected national parks. It’s not only about peaceful revolutions, but it is also about feeling a deep connection and showing love and respect for each other. Many of the artists are constantly trying to give a voice to the poorest or empower unheard social groups. Their interventions are started from an artistic point of view but often are developed in social innovation projects.
The mission behind the Social Art Award is to explore this field of Social Art. Furthermore, the award focuses on strengthening the recognition of social artists, valuing their work and, eventually highlighting the importance of Social Art for societies and the global community. The Social Art Award is an independent and not for profit initiative by the Institute for Art and Innovation e.V. and was initiated in 2017.
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